Nøkken
by Lily-Beth.Bluebell
Summary: When Sarah Williams was just four years old, she was almost drowned in the lake by a dark creature. She was saved by a mysterious man she can scarcely remember, but now, fifteen years later, the thing that tried to kill her is back. And it is entirely up to the one who gave her certain powers to save her again.
1. Prologue

**So, I was reading up on my mythical creatures, mostly the Fae and such, to see what the more accurate term for Jareth's race would be, and I came across this one. I did quite a bit of reading on it and it genuinely freaked me out, so I'll give a quick heads up, there is a young child and deep water, but no death. Just a warning. **

**As far as updates are concerned for this story, they will be INCREDIBLY sporadic because I never know when I'm going to get on the PC after my laptop broke, so please bear with me.**

It was late, nearing dark, when the Goblin King took flight from the window. The build-up of stress over the course of his day was what caused him to transform into an owl in the blink of an eye half-way through ranting to his goblins about the noise level. In an instant, he was no longer the tall and lithe King of the Goblins, but an equally as powerful predator; a feathered hunter with razor sharp talons and golden eyes which could see every speck of dust even in the twilight. In one beat, his strong wings propelled him up out of his throne and into the air. He flew straight for the window. A long flight to the Above was what he needed to cool down before he annihalated every single one of his subjects.

Jareth had always had a quick temper and it took very little to truly annoy him, but after several hundred years of ruling over creatures as nasty and mischievious as goblins, one could hardly blame him. He had not met the previous Goblin King, but he imagined that he had felt the same way. Granted though, not all of his subjects were quite as bad as the goblins. The few dwarfs that hid out in the Labyrinth and in the darker corners of Goblin City were easy enough to deal with and one or two had even approached him to offer their services. He could scarcely remember agreeing to pay one of them if he sprayed the pesky sprites at the entrance of his Labyrinth which tended to put runners off. And he could not have runners giving up before they even entered the maze. That was hardly just.

He was so lost in thought that he barely noticed he was even Above. The sun was just beginning to set here. He slowed and landed expertly on top of a pale stone obelisk; some sort of giant memorial stone in the park. Off to his left was a cluster of trees; a small forest. To his right was a tiny pebbled bridge arching over a shallow stream which led to a lake. There was a decaying wooden bench by the lake. The rest of the park was covered in rich green grass and neat rows of flowers were in full bloom in specific areas. The rows framed the pebbled path which led to a children's play area behind him. Owls could not frown, but in his mind, he glared profusely at the flowers. They were tamed; forced to conform to what the humans believed was natural beauty. If only they could see the flowers as nature intended them back in the Underground: one of the only true places left on Earth that the humans had not tainted.

A childish giggle pulled him from his anger and he turned his head to glance at the metal framework he knew to be a jungle jim: years of dealings with mortals; humans had taught him that. A young girl, probably hardly older than four or five, had reached the top of the metal frame. Her hair was dark for one so young, and reached her shoulders. Her eyes were a pale, pastel green, almost resembling some kind of jewel he had once seen. New Jade, he decided. He tore his gaze away from her intensely triumphant face for a moment to search for her mother, but there was no one to be seen. She was the only one here. He dearly hoped her house was close by, otherwise, whoever was supposed to be looking after her was incredibly irresponsible.

Contrary to what most of the runners of his Labyrinth thought, he was not a hateful being. Cruel by nature, and generous, yes, but not hateful. He did not take wished away children out of malice, in fact, he rather liked children. If someone was careless enough to wish their child to be gone, then they did not deserve the child at all. So he would oblige their selfish desires, removing the child from a place it was unwanted in the process. If the wisher regretted their actions enough, he would grant them the chance to win the child back, but only the truly determined would best his Labyrinth. In the event that the wisher failed, he would adopt the child out to a family in one of the Fae kingdoms where they would eventually complete the change to Fae and live as they did.

Jareth ruffled his feathers, snapping himself out of his thoughts again. The little girl, with a yellow bear clutched under her arm, shakily straightened herself up so that she was standing atop the climbling frame proudly as if she had conquered it. It was a whole new world, and she was the first person to set foot on it. It belonged to her in that moment.

She held her bear out and glared at it.

"See, Lancelot?" she demanded of it. "I told you we'd make it to the top! We had to fight off goblins and villains to get here, but we made it!"

She was strangely articulate for her age, and he noted that she possessed great imagination and fire. Most children were able to play on their own or with toys relatively easily, but he had yet to find one who acted out scenes with such determination. As if she actually believed that she and the bear had battled with goblins and such to make it to the top of the jungle jim.

Jareth kept his eyes on her with extreme interest as she began to speak again.

"You're right," she muttered seriously to the bear. "How are we going to get down? The goblins and their wicked king are coming to get us!"

Due to his owl form, he could not smile, but he was deeply amused by her play for obvious reasons.

The girl glanced down to the softened chips of tree bark that coated the area around the jungle jim in thought. A look of avid determination was born in her eyes and she hugged the bear tighter. In a moment that took the Goblin King completely by surprise, the girl bravely leapt off the frame. He tensed, ready to leap into action should she hurt herself seriously, but she was fine (and, he reminded himelf, he was not allowed to interfere in mortal affairs unless specifically asked). She landed on her feet hard and stumble forwards onto her knees. She made not a sound and did not release the bear.

The child leapt to her feet, briefly dusting her dress and knees down, and held the bear out again.

"That was close, Lancelot!" she whispered dramatically. "We should plan it more the next time we storm the castle."

He shuffled a little so that his whole body was facing her. She seemed to hear the scrape of his talons on the stone, as she glanced up at him. A look of delight spread across her face.

"Look, Lancelot!" she gushed, shaking the bear furiously as if it was a human being before her. "It's a real owl! Ssh! Don't scare him off."

Her jewel eyes rose to meet his golden ones and she smiled kindly.

"Hello, owl," she said politely. He was rather surprised when she gave a small curtsey. "Did you see us storm the castle?"

He tilted his head and blinked his eyes, staring at the spot she had landed when she had jumped from the frame. She glanced back at it too and looked down sheepishly, a shy grin becoming her features.

"Yeah, I guess that wasn't too safe," she admitted. "But the goblins were coming!"

Internally, he laughed. What an strange child. Amusing, polite, imaginative and rather intelligent for her age. And alone, he noticed again. She she not have any friends or perhaps an older sibling to play with?

A loud sound startled them both. He merely glanced to the large clock tower he could see in the distance from where the sound was coming. The girl jerked in fright and glanced up.

"Oh no, Lancelot!" she cried. "I don't believe it! It's seven 'o clock! Mommy is going to be so mad!"

She glanced up at him again. She was frightened of her mother's anger, he could tell, but not so frightened as to make him assume there was something darker going on here. This was simply a girl who did not want to displease her mother and get a telling off for arriving home so late.

"Goodbye, owl!" she called as she ran off towards the bridge.

He watched her rush away with interest. He was readying himself to take flight again and return to his kingdom to continue lecturing the goblins, when the girl stopped. So did he. The girl stayed still, but he looked around towards the lake. He could hear music played on a violin of some kind. It was beautiful and melodic, yet hauntingly seductive. It was meant to be entrancing, he could tell, but he could also see right through the spell it was supposed to cast, and he was immune to its effects.

Near the edge of the lake, up to his waist in the water, was a young man. His skin was pale and his hair was dark. Though his chest was bare, Jareth could see the waistband of some form of breeches. His eyes were completely black, but if he squinted, the Goblin King could see a bright yellow pulsing within. It would be completely missed by the human eye and he was fairly certain that if he was not in his owl form, he would not be able to see it either.

The young man was staring intently at the little girl who was slowly turning around. At first, Jareth thought nothing of it, despite the fact that he could feel the spell working its will through the music. Then, the girls mouth fell slack and her yellow bear Lancelot fell from her arms to the grass. Now he knew that something was seriously wrong. Not once had the girl let the bear fall, even when she tripped.

Jareth watched as the girl, so fiery and happy before the music, began to walk slowly towards the man playing the fiddle. Her feet dragged; she was a zombie in the way she moved. Her entire body seemed to become slack, as if it would crumble at any moment.

"That's right," the male whispered. "Come, child."

Jareth glared. He understood the words perfectly as if they were in his mother tongue. But they were in the ancient language of Old Norse. A language spoken by no one. He wracked his brain, trying to figure out what this thing was as the innocent child came ever closer to the edge of the lake.

With something of a pang, he remembered the name. Nøkken. A dangerous being to mortals, especially human children. Before he could finish briefing himself on the creature, a piercing scream shook him. Nøkken had ceased his fiddle-playing. In fact, the instrument was gone. He appeared to have reached out and grabbed the little girl's arm. She shrieked and furiously pulled against him, but a quick twitch of Nøkken's arm muscle had her in the water beside him.

The child could not stand in water so deep and she flailed and sputter wildly, trying to keep herself afloat. The look in her eyes filled him with a sadness. She knew that the games were over. She was not pretending to fight with a villain, she was living it. But soon she would not be. He clicked his beak angrily. Damn that rule. He was not allowed to do anything unless he was asked to.

Nøkken dragged the drowning child further into the lake, holding her under. She kicked and flailed like an animal, and managed to surface for a brief moment. In that tiny second, her panicked eyes met his.

"Help me!" she begged.

That was all he needed. Even as he took off from the obelisk, he was transforming back into the regal king that he was. His booted feet hit the ground hard and he moved with inhuman speed towards the lake. A heat filled his palm as he conjured a clear crystal ball there. The girl was close enough so that he could reach out and grab her.

He did just that, grasping her arm tightly and yanking her out of the water. Nøkken glared at him, his beautiful facade failing and turning to gruesome ugliness. Without giving the creature time to say anything, Jareth tossed the crystal at it.

"Nøkken, begone," he ordered in the Old Norse.

And just like that, it disappeared. Jareth did not need to check twice. He knew the limitations of its power. It would not return to this lake now that he had personally banished it.

He turned his attentions back to the child who was coughing and gasping. She had fallen to her knees again, and was crying as well as trying to force air back into her lungs. She had not taken in any water, she was simply panicking.

"Breathe, child," he told her calmly, placing his hand on her tiny back as she leaned forwards to cough more.

He was kneeling beside her now, one bent leg pointed towards the sky and the other horizontal. The girl placed her hands on his leg to push herself up and she gazed up at him, tears in her eyes.

"You're alright," he reassured her quietly. "It cannot hurt you any more."

She hurried forwards and threw her tiny arms around his neck. He put his hand on her back again as she sobbed into his neck. She was calming herself quickly, but she did not let go of him. He let her cling to him for several minutes until he remembered that she had panicked about being home late.

"Should you not be on your way home?" he asked her. "Your mother is surely worried about you."

She moved away from him and nodded, sniffing and wiping her eyes.

"Can you come with me?" she asked timidly. "I'm scared."

Jareth sighed. The thing would not find her again. But he supposed she was only a child, after all, and she had very nearly drowned. He got to his feet and held out his gloved hand to her. She immediately reached up to take it. She was the one leading him, and he allowed it. She reached down to grab her bear as they passed it, but otherwise, kept her hand firmly in his.

She led him across roads and even up a small hill. He was surprised by how far her house was from the park, and how dangerous the journey was for one so young.

"What are you going to tell your mother?" he asked her.

"She doesn't believe me when I tell her about goblins and stuff," the child explained. "So I'll just tell her I fell in the water by accident."

Jareth nodded. She was a smart child and knew better than to go ranting about mysterious men in the water.

"What will you tell her about me?"

"I guess I'll say that you helped me out of the water," she mused aloud.

Jareth did not press her. She would not say anything to make her parents suspicious, that he was certain of. The little girl led him right up to the porch of a large, white house. There, she released his hand.

"I must be on my way," he explained to her. "I have things to take care of back home."

"Yeah," she said thoughtfully, ringing her hair out. "You look like a kinda important person."

"That is because I am," he laughed. "Farewell, child."

"Goodbye, owl," she said as he turned away from her.

Jareth grinned and tansformed, flying up into a tree beside the house and out of sight. He stayed to hear her mother berate her for being late and wet and then to become hysterical when she discovered her daughter had fallen into the deep lake. The woman ranted about what her father would do when he returned and she contemplated not telling him at all. He discovered that the small girl was named Sarah.

_Sarah meaning 'princess'_, he mused. She was more like a warrior with her fire and passion for play and they games she acted out in the park. But her looks...she would grow to be quite beautiful, even by Fae standards.

He stayed in the tree for a while until well after dark when the girl, Sarah, had been bathed and put to bed, but had secretly stayed awake to see her father come in from work. Once the gentle man had kissed her goodnight, she closed her bedroom door fully and sat up in her bed with the bear Lancelot. He listened with rapt attention, and as she spoke, he felt a sadness in him. Was this stuffed animal truly her only friend?

"Wow, Lancelot," she whispered so that her parents would not hear she was still awake. "Did you see what happened today? I'm sorry I dropped you, but that music made me...it made me move when I didn't want to. It wasn't like our games. It was real. And I was really scared. If that man with the glitter didn't help me, I would have really been in trouble. And did you see what the man playing the music looked like? He was so scary." He saw tears roll down Sarah's cheeks. "I wish I could forget all about it."

The Goblin King dipped his head. She could not have made his job any easier for him. He left the branch and flew towards her slightly opened window, pushing it open with his feet. Sarah jumped but when he transformed back into the 'glittery man', she seemed to relax.

She wiped her tears away and smiled at him as he knelt down beside her bed.

"Though you won't remember," he began, "I am giving you the ability to call me whenever you should feel the need. You just have to say your right words. Do you know the right words?"

"I wish..." she whispered.

He gave her a small smile.

"That's right, Sarah," he encouraged. "All you have to do is wish for me, should you need me. In the meantime, however..."

Jareth held up his right hand. That familiar heat spread outwards from the centre of his palm and a clear crystal ball rested there. The girl did not protest as he held it out to her, she simply reached up and took it in her tiny hands. He was fairly sure that she knew the purpose of the crystal. After staring at it for a few seconds, it began to glow and Sarah fell asleep instantly.

He stood and leapt out of the window, transforming back into an owl. He felt that he would miss this little girl, though the spell would eventually wear off due to it being cast on someone so young. But by then, she would assume it all to be a vivid dream. Besides, despite giving her the power to call him whenever she wanted, he was sure he would never see the child called Sarah Williams again.

**Ah, Jareth. How wrong you were. I feel that this could work as a stand-alone one-shot prequel to Labyrinth, but I'm going to be continuing it because I like to stress myself out XD. **

**I'd like to explain a little about the creature known as Nøkken. I came across him in my Fae research. He is an Old Norse mythical creature kind of similar to the Scottish kelpie. He lures people into the waters he resides to drown them, though not to eat them. He is a shape-shifter. He can become a white horse with black eyes, or - to women - an attractive young man playing a fiddle. He can also be an old wooden boat or a tree stump and all you have to do to get rid of him is to say his name and tell him to piss off then he'll go back into the water, leaving you alone. But despite this, he is very dangerous and manipulative.**

**Anyhoo, please review :D I kinda liked this one personally. Ya know, it shows how Jareth possibly met Sarah before and him giving her those 'certain powers', though not necessarily falling in love with her. And we have Lancelot :D Of course, you guys are the readers/reviewers XD**


	2. Chapter 1: A Story is Told

**So, after re-reading this once I'd finished writing it, I got more of an idea of where it's going and due to the new FF ratings thingy which have become stricter (also, I re-read the ratings guide and they were more specific about ages and content) I'm thinking that I should bump this up to M. But as it goes on, you guys could always let me know if you think it should go to M, just to be on the safe side.**

**Oh, I forgot to say before: I only wish I owned Jareth. Sadly, I do not own him or anything Labyrinth related. I don't even own ****Nøkken, though THAT, I'm not complaining about.**

Jareth was completely numb. From the tips of his toes to his brain, he felt nothing. He supposed that such supreme boredom would do that to a person. Since Sarah Williams had run his Labyrinth almost four years ago, there had not been another runner.

He regretted most of the things he had put Sarah through when she'd been here. He had been surprised to see her again, wishing away her baby brother, but had not been surprised that she had beaten him. Still, she had left him rather heartbroken. He had meant every word he had said to her, and sang to her.

In the beginning, he had not cared much for her. He had still been mildy fascinated by her as he had been when he'd met her as a child, for she still possessed that fire and determination. But it had been his job to slow her progress so that she ran out of time. Of course, even after he'd taken away three hours of her time, she'd still managed to best him. He was sure that he had actually fallen for the silly girl in that dream ballroom of hers. It had been a distraction of his, initially. But as he had watched her, so beautiful and innocent and she searched for him in the bubble, he had fallen for her. He was not sure why, only that he had.

Afterwards, he had not spied on her. She had not asked him to remain in her life. His traitorous subjects, yes. She wanted them to keep in contact with her, but she did not mention him during their little victory party. So he had left her side and had not looked in on her since.

Now, he regretted that. He did not exactly miss her, but he loved her and silently pined for her every day. If only she would wish for him. If only she wanted him as much as he wanted her.

With a sigh of frustration, he got to his feet. The goblins in the throne room flinched, thinking he was going to unleash his infamous temper on them, but he did not. He simply wandered towards the large window that overlooked the Labyrinth and sat on the stone sill. He could see fairies and sprites fluttering around in the darkness. Otherwise, everything was still.

"Majesty!" a goblin shrieked suddenly. "Someone's going to say the words!"

Jareth remained still, not bothering to move until he felt the tugging. When he did, he grudgingly got to his feet and transformed, flying to the Above.

There was screaming. Terrified screaming. The sound filled his heart with dread. This was not a normal calling. He morphed back into the humanoid Fae he was and whipped around for the source.

The park here was different at night. Only moonlight shone down, illuminating the lake. Only it was not still water as it had been before. The liquid was rippling wildly and that screaming was still ripping through his heart. He glanced around and there was that damnable Norse demon. Its expression was feral and full of a kind of frenzied bloodlust he had never seen on it before.

The writhing creature it was trying to drown was hysterical. She screamed and sucked in air when she surfaced, but there appeared to be no one coming to help her. He watched this display unable to do anything. She was not asking for his help, therefore he could do nothing.

She surfaced, spluttering and her eyes met his. Pale jewels. Jade.

"Jareth, help!" she screamed.

"Oh, Danu," he hissed to himself. "Sarah."

Nøkken should not have even been able to return to this lake, not after Jareth had cast his spell fifteen years ago. He did not have time to think about this, though. He quickly produced a crystal in his hand and stood ready to throw it as he stopped by the lake's edge. But it was not just to avoid the water that made him pause.

The creature had stopped trying to drown Sarah, but was standing up straight, looking directly at him. Sarah was facing him too, and Nøkken had his arms wound tightly around her torso, pinning her to his bare chest. She had curled her arms to try to break free of him, but these were now trapped too. Her sopping wet hair clung to her face and she shivered in the freezing water. She was panting heavily and still coughing up some water.

"Goblin King," Nøkken greeted in English, though it was less than friendly.

"Release her," Jareth ordered. "I banished you from this place, you have no power here."

"On the contrary, Goblin King," the creature hissed back. "Now, unless you want me to snap her pretty little neck right here and now, I suggest you remove that little crystal of yours."

He trailed his fingers down Sarah's neck, and Jareth gritted his teeth, but let the crystal dissipate. He was not defeated though. He concentrated on a powerful banishing spell with no visibility. Sarah wriggled in Nøkken's arms.

"Let go!" she demanded, though he could hear the fear in her voice.

"Hush, sweetling," he crooned in her ear. "Men are talking."

Sarah made a disgusted noise then gasped when the grip on her was tightened.

"That is enough, Nøkken," Jareth said firmly, still trying to concentrate on banishing the thing.

"Actually, I am glad you came," he continued as if Jareth had not spoken. "I wanted to make a point to you. I always get what I want."

"As do I," Jareth muttered.

The creature suddenly moved one arm from around Sarah to trail his fingers down her side and around her waist, crossing over her abdomen and dipping downwards slightly. The fingers were hardly a few inches under her navel, but Jareth's anger flared. He fought to keep himself under control. He needed this spell to work.

"And yet here we stand," Nøkken smiled. "Me with the girl and you with nothing."

"Please, just stop this!" Sarah cried suddenly.

She gave another vicious tug, but Nøkken held fast. Jareth breathed a sigh of relief when he felt his banishing spell release. It was perfectly on target too, for Nøkken gave a cry of pain and released Sarah. Immediately, he grabbed her arms and pulled her from the water. In a flash of bright light, the water demon was gone, leaving them alone.

Sarah stayed down on her knees, probably too shaky to stand. He knelt down the way he had fifteen years ago. She was panting heavily again, and though her head was down, he knew she was crying.

"Sarah," he called softly.

She looked up at him. Her lips were tinged with blue and her eyes were brimming with tears. She trembled violently from a mixture of cold and fear.

"Oh, Goblin King," she whispered. "I-I thought he was-was going to-"

"Hush," he told her gently. "He's gone."

She surprised him when she leaned forwards to grip the front of his shirt. Her forehead pressed against his chest as she sobbed. He gripped the edges of his large cloak and put his arms around the girl so that she was protected from the night chill. He wanted to do so much more though. He wanted to pull her against his body and kiss her so hard that it would leave her breathless. But he could not do that. He also wanted her to trust him.

"Sarah, I must take you home," he said. "It's late and your family are surely worried about you."

"They're all in Alaska for the week," she shook her head. "They went to visit one of Karen's sisters."

"All the same, it's cold out," he said.

He straightened up, removing his cloak and draping it around her shoulders. He supposed it was the gentlemanly thing to do. He held his hand out to her and she took it, gripping it tightly to steady herself. Once she was stable, she wrapped her arms around his own right arm tightly. This surprised him too. This scared and shaky Sarah was not the one he remembered. He frowned. Perhaps trying to drown her was not all that Nøkken had tried to do.

Jareth would not ask her about it now though, and he did not shake her off. It was strange, the level of leniency he allowed to her, now and the previous two times they had met. Still, for a little thing, her grip when frightened was hard. He tried to reassure her as they walked.

"There is no need to be frightened, Sarah," he whispered. "He's gone. He's not coming back right now."

"I know," she said in a small voice, her eyes darting around.

She did not try to make excuses or explain herself. He did not want to hear them, if he was being honest with himself. That would not be his Sarah.

"Th-Thank you for coming," she spilled out.

He said nothing. What was there to say to that that would not arouse some kind of suspiscion in her? He was certain she took his silence as cold indifference, but he did nothing to deny this. It was what she expected of him, and as always, he would forever be living up to her expectations.

Sarah fumbled in her pockets for a key. Jareth invited himself inside with her, but she did not protest. In fact, once he was over the threshold, she released him and quickly locked the door behind her. What in the name of Danu was she so afraid of? Surely not Nøkken. He frowned when she double-checked the handle and closed the curtains hurriedly.

The Goblin King was not notorious for his level of self-control.

"What are you so afraid of?" he asked her.

She shot him a look, but he could not tell what it was supposed to say.

"I'm going to get changed into something dry," she informed him quickly. "Make sure no one gets in."

He scowled after her as she hurried away from him up the stairs. How could anyone get into the house after she had just locked and re-locked the door three times?

He could hear her banging around through the ceiling and she was back downstairs quickly, dabbing her hair with a towel. She wore very simple, comfortable pyjamas but she did not look any more relaxed. She rushed past him into the living room and he followed, though he did not sit when she did.

Her legs curled up to her chest as she looked up at him.

"Listen, I'll keep it as short as I can," Sarah said finally. "That thing that you saved me from - Nøkken, did you call him? Well, I was sort of dating him."

"What?" he demanded.

Jareth was familiar with Aboveground terms, but that was what shocked him. Had Sarah Williams gone completely insane after leaving the Underground four years ago?

"It's not what you think," she said quickly. "He wasn't like that before. He was human. He called himself Neal. I mean, I didn't think there was anything wrong with him until he started being...well, mean. At first it was just little things. He kept asking me to go out to the lake two towns south of here but I didn't want to and he started to get mad. Then a couple of weeks ago, I agreed to spend the night at his house."

"Come again?" Jareth asked, not sure he had heard right. If she had been so uncomfortable with this man in the first place, why in the name of Danu had she agreed to stay with him?

"Look, I know it wasn't the smartest thing to do," she admitted. "But I thought...I mean, I was sure that -" She broke off and took a deep breath. "I thought he loved me. I didn't think he would hurt me when I asked to stay inside instead of going out."

"Sarah -" he began, angry now. For one thing, no one would ever love her like he did. And for another, he was ready to kill the creature that had dared to lay its hands on her.

"Please, I wish you would just let me finish."

Bound by the words, he silenced himself and nodded for her to continue.

"Anyways, he wanted to go out to the lake around the back of his house. Always with the damn lake. He wasn't even listening when I told him I didn't like going near water higher than my knees. So, I told him that if he wasn't going to listen to me and was going to keep getting mad, that I would leave him. He said that he didn't care so I got up and I turned to leave."

Sarah's face went slightly pale as he frowned again. Still bound by the wish, though, he made not a sound.

"Then he changed," she said darkly. "I don't know what happened, really. One minute, he was acting like he couldn't care less if I just walked out, the next, he was furious. He grabbed me and hit me. I managed to get away but he kept saying that he was going to get me to the lake eventually. For a while, he seemed to be following me everywhere I went." Her voice was quiet now. "He cornered me in the underpass not far from here but there were cops patrolling, so there wasn't much he could do.

"Then tonight, he called and asked me to meet him in the park. He said that he was so sorry and he only wanted to apologize and play me this song he wrote. I was stupid to think that was all he wanted. When I got there, there was this violin music playing and I couldn't stop myself from moving towards the water. And Neal grabbed me and pulled me in, only it wasn't Neal. It was like he suddenly he had all this power and magic. I didn't know exactly what, but I knew something was wrong, and that's when I called you."

She had finished. She looked up at him as if expecting him to say something, but he did not. He did not trust himself to open his mouth and not rant and shout in anger.

"I know I was stupid," she insisted. "But I really thought..."

Sarah trailed off. Jareth did not try to reassure her that she had not been stupid, because in fact, she _had _been.

Several things pressed on his mind. Nøkken had somehow been able to live out of water and retain a human form for some time. And he had completely deceived Sarah and _hurt_ her. It did explain why she was so jumpy.

"Say something," she pleaded quietly.

He glanced down at her.

"You know that you could have called me at any time and I would have come," he said.

Sarah looked down, ashamed.

"I know," she muttered. "But -"

"Yes, yes," he brushed harshly. "You thought he loved you."

She looked hurt but he found himself not caring. He was far too angry.

"He struck you?" he demanded.

Sarah flinched.

"On my face, my ribs," she said slowly. "He didn't hit me that hard. I mean, I don't even have bruises any more. But he was really strong. I almost didn't get away."

"Sarah, have you any idea how dangerous that creature is?"

"Not really," she admitted.

Jareth took a deep breath to calm himself before he lost it with her. After all, it was not her fault that she had gotten mixed up with Nøkken again. She had had no idea what he was. He sat in the chair opposite the couch she was curled up on.

He needed her to remember and he sort of hoped that she did not blame him for the events that had recently transpired once she _did _remember.

"I have a story to tell you."

**Urgh, I wasn't happy with this one. I suppose that everything that was supposed to be said was said but I feel that the writing of it sucks. BUT, you guys are the readers, I'll let y'all decide. This story was update quite a bit quicker than I expected, too.**


	3. Chapter 2: Accusations

**So, lotsa people are adding to their alerts and only a few are reviewing. Please, if you're reading, review :D Even if you're just saying you liked it :P Of course, feedback and criticism (constructive and not hateful) is welcome too :D In fact, it's craved like chocolate :P As my reviewers will tell you, I'm sure, if you've got questions, I answer them as best I can cuz I do like to get back to y'all :P  
Anyhoo, so this is the third update in three days. I seem to be on a bit of a roll with this story and I'm getting lots of time on the internet right now. Let's all hope it stays this way :P**

Sarah listened with rapt attention as the Goblin King spoke but she did not look at him. She was not so sure if she even could after relaying her somewhat embarrassing story to him. He had not said much about it, but she supposed that was what she expected.

She scoffed at herself.

Had she perhaps foolishly been hoping for him to kiss her gently and tell her that there was nothing to worry about? Maybe she had expected him to be angry at her for calling him. Maybe she had expected him to be aggressive. Perhaps something deep inside her had hoped he was going to throw her to the ground and relieve some stress. None of those particular expectations were met though. This Goblin King seemed aloof and almost cold. With a pang, she realised that her rejection of him four years ago was what had probably made him this way. But she had been convinced at the time that he was lying; throwing out the last thing he had to make her lose. Now...

"You will not remember," he explained. "At the time, you wished you could forget about it, so I complied with that and took away your memory of it. You were around four years old I'd guess. I had taken a trip to the park you played in to calm down when I saw you playing with a yellow bear. You were pretending to storm a castle filled with goblins."

He grinned at that and she managed a short laugh. She could remember playing that particular game with Lancelot during most of her childhood. The idea that he had witnessed that was certainly ironic, if nothing else.

"I watched you act out this victory with determination and passion. You bravely leapt from the climbing frame to 'escape the goblins'. You noticed me. You actually spoke to me, but you were late in getting home so you rushed off rather quickly. Then music started playing."

Sarah felt her face fall from a fondly nostalgic smile to an expression of some kind of fear. The music. The melody that was hauntingly seducive. The notes that forced her to move and speak not a word of protest even when she knew she was walking to her death...

"I watched as you dropped the toy you had not yet let go of and began to walk towards the water, but I could do nothing to stop you. I am not allowed to interfere in mortal affairs unless specifically asked by that mortal."

"You couldn't do anything?" she repeated.

"I wanted to, Sarah. While it is in my nature to be cruel, it is not within my heart to allow a child to drown in such a manner. But I was bound by magic. Then, as you surfaced, you looked right at me and asked me to help you. So I did. And I banished that demon from the lake in the process.

"He should not even be able to walk on land as you said he did. And he should not have been able to set foot in that lake again."

Sarah tried to process this information. She remembered seeing an owl at the park when she'd been around four. She could remember talking to it as if it could understand her before running home when the town clock struck seven. How was this possible? She had met the Goblin King once before. He had saved her life and made her forget all about the trauma of the experience.

And how was Neal - Nøkken - able to walk on land? Why was he back? Why was this happening to her? She pressed her forehead against her knees, feeling a headache coming on.

"Why didn't you say anything to me when I was in the Labyrinth?" she asked.

"It never did come up in conversation for some reason. And you had wished to forget about it. It was not my place to remind you. If you wanted, I could make you remember now, but you would experience everything you did at the time. It would not be pleasant."

Sarah shook her head furiously. She did not want another reason to be afraid of this Nøkken guy. She had lied to the Goblin King when she'd told him that she had not been hit hard. In truth, the blow to her face had been quite light because she had leapt away in time so that the fist had barely caressed her. But if she was to lift her t-shirt slightly now, they would both be able to see the huge, dark bruise caused by a cracked rib.

She sighed.

"Why is it back?"

The Goblin King did not answer for a short while.

"You heard what he said. He is used to getting what he wants. It must have been several hundred years since someone banished him, so when I saved you from him, he became angry."

Sarah felt her head shoot up and she turned a burning glare onto the Goblin King.

"So this is your fault?"

"I beg your pardon?" he asked, as if he was not so sure he had heard her properly.

"Oh, my God, it _is_!" she shrieked, leaping to her feet. He was entirely to blame for her heartbreak, and for her brush with death. "I should have known you would have something to do with this!"

"What is going on in that head of yours, woman?"

"Oh, forget it! Just get out of my house and take your glitter and your stupid crystal balls with you!"

As Sarah turned away from him, she felt tears burn her eyes. She was being stupid again. Stupid to think she could have trusted the Goblin King not to be involved in another of her biggest mistakes; deepest hurts.

She marched away from him and began a hasty trip up the stairs. He was following her though, not exactly going faster than she was, but keeping a short distance behind her.

"Sarah, listen to me," he said.

"I thought I told you to go away!" she hissed.

"Sarah-"

She felt his hand close over her wrist and she whirled around to face him, freezing completely and uttering a small shriek of fright. Surely he was not going to do what Neal - or Nøkken - had done to her? He seemed to stop too, however, a frown gracing his features. Seeing his face made her want to lash out at him, and she knew that was a battle she would never win.

Yanking her arm away, she continued and slammed the door of the first room she came to shut behind her. She did not want to see him. Not when he had brought this all on her.

She pressed her back firmly against the door when the Goblin King pushed it gently. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that he could easily push the door open or perhaps even use magic to do so. But he didn't. For that, she was a little grateful.

"Sarah," he sighed again.

"Just leave me alone," she whispered back. She was too tired to deal with him. She just wanted to sleep peacefully for a few hours.

"Perhaps some blame does lie with me," he admitted, though she heard the rage in his voice. "But would you rather I had let him kill you like that when you were just four years old?"

She hiccupped but said nothing to him.

"Imagine what your parents would have felt," he continued mercilessly. "Think of it, Sarah. A child viciously drowned in the lake by a demon equally as vicious. What kind of a man would I have been if I'd allowed that, especially after you gave me the power to do something about it?"

_A cruel one, _Sarah thought bitterly.

Still, she kept her mouth shut. Why did he not just leave? It was not as though she was not grateful for him coming in the first place. She had been surprised to see him appear at all. Now, she wanted him to go. She hated him in that moment. The ache she felt in her chest; the bruises she had felt; the cold terror of almost drowning - they were all his fault.

She slid the lock of the door along so that it was locked and moved to sit on the lid of the toilet, staring at the door. Silently, she dared him to try to open it, but he did not. He had not left yet: she could still feel his presence lingering just outside the doorway. It was almost as if the air was different there, like there was static electricity hovering around.

"You cannot stay in there forever, Sarah."

"Watch me," she spat back.

She heard him sigh. Glancing down at her wrist, she fingered the area where he'd grabbed her. It had not hurt in any way. It had been firm, but gentle. It had only scared her; sparked a natural reaction in her. But still...

_But still what?_

He had not hurt her. She knew he could have done so quite easily, but he hadn't, and when she'd pulled away, he had released her. He could easily break down the light wood separating them now, but he did not. He remained outside it, waiting for her to calm down. Sarah knew that she was too stuborn for her own good, and perhaps it wasn't entirely his fault. After all, how could he have known what would come of saving her life?

She huffed quietly and went to wrap her arms around herself. She winced in pain though, gasping through her teeth. She glanced once more towards the door, and stood to face the mirror, lifting her top slightly. She trailed her fingers lightly around the fringes of the bruise blossoming an inch or two below her right breast. It did not hurt as long as she did not touch it.

"Don't you think you're being a bit childish?"

She glared at the door.

"Don't you think it's time you left?"

"I'm not going anywhere, Sarah. Just because I banished the thing from the lake again, that does not mean it cannot come back...again."

"I don't see why you even care!" she raged back at him, feeling tears threaten her again. "You've already messed up my life enough. I don't need you lurking around to cause more trouble."

The Goblin King was silent.

Sarah jumped when the sound of the doorbell rang throughout the house, but she made no move to exit the bathroom.

"Aren't you going to answer that?"

She did not answer him. There was little need to tell him that she no longer answered her own door, especially when home alone.

"Fine," she heard him mutter.

She could hear him walk away and was surprised when she heard the front door open. She was unable to hear exactly what he was saying, but he was definitely talking to someone. And whoever he was talking to was not taking no for an answer.

The Goblin King's footsteps thudded back up the stairs.

"Sarah, just come out of there," he implored. "Whoever this 'Maya' is, she won't leave until she sees you."

Sarah's resolve broke. Maya was one of her best and only friends. She would never come over this late - unannounced - without good reason. She moved cautiously towards the door and opened it slowly.

The Goblin King was dressed...well, normally. He wore plain jeans and a black leather jacket, unzipped, over a grey t-shirt. His wild hair was pulled back into a ponytail, though most of it was escaping the band. Even his face appeared more human. At least he had the sense to make himself look normal.

She passed right by him though, not meeting his eyes as she hurried back down to the hall. Maya looked flustered, as if she'd run five miles to get to Sarah's front door. The girl frowned when Sarah stopped.

"Girl, have you been crying?"

Maya glanced back at the Goblin King over Sarah's shoulder, as if blaming him. As she should. Still, Sarah shook her head.

"I'm fine," she said. "What is it?"

"I probably could have just called, actually," Maya said. "But it kinda felt like a face-to-face thing. Neal called me again. He wanted to know if you were at home because he was going to visit you."

Sarah stiffened and she sensed the Goblin King do the same somewhere behind her.

"What did you tell him?"

"Well, of course, I told him to fuck off and that he blew his chances with you the second he raised his goddamn hands. Then I hung up and drove over here to tell you."

"Thanks, I guess," Sarah mumbled.

"No problem. Listen, I have to go. I kinda left Joey in the middle of...well..."

Sarah smiled at her friend, and leaned over to hug her.

"Will you be okay getting home?"

"Sure. Joey's the one who drove me here."

"Tell him thanks."

"Hey, are _you _gonna be okay?" Maya asked suddenly, her voice low. She glanced back at the Goblin King, making sure he was not listening. Sarah knew he was though. "I kinda figured that Neal would be coming here no matter what I said. He did before, but I remember your dad was home."

Sarah did not say anything. She flinched when she felt the hand of the Goblin King rest on her shoulder.

"She'll be fine with me," he said. His voice was quiet but strangely harsh.

Sarah sighed. She was far too tired to deal with conflict right now.

"You heard what he said. I'll be fine," she told Maya.

The girl nodded and turned to leave. Once she was out of sight, Sarah closed the door and re-locked it again. She found that she could not turn around to face the Goblin King. She was too embarrassed after her admittedly childish behaviour. And she knew her eyes were red from crying.

Her hands shook when she lifted them to brush away a stray tear. She felt the Goblin King move. His heat radiated down her back though he did not touch her.

"Sarah," he sighed.

"He's coming back," she whispered.

"I know."

"You won't leave me?" she breathed.

She could not quite believe she had dared to utter those words. After she'd ordered him out and yelled at him, how could she possibly expect him to stay with her? His breath blew strands of her hair forwards.

"Never," he sighed.

**I liked this chapter a bit better than the last one but I dunno. I feel like there's something a little off about my writing right now. BUT, y'all are the readers and only you guys can tell me what you think :P Also, don't worry too much about Maya. I don't see her being in it in the future and she'll get home fine to continue doing what she was doing with Joey XD.**


	4. Chapter 3: Old and New

**Thanks for all your support :D I'm loving your reviews :P And all those people who are adding to alerts and faves :D I'm sure you all know how awesome it is to wake up and have at least ten e-mails of reviews and alerts :D They are what made me do this one ASAP.  
I keep forgetting to do this: I DO NOT OWN LABYRINTH! AT ALL! I only wish that Jareth was real.**

Sarah had fallen asleep on the sofa. She had said little to nothing after her friend had left other than asking him to stay. He had almost been ready to scream back at her the way she had with him; to be stubborn and childish. But he found that even the cruelty in him could not overcome the twinge in his chest that made him want to protect her from what she was so scared of.

She gave a small twitch in her sleep and he paused in his inner thoughts for a moment to make sure that she stayed that was (she must have been exhausted, after all). Then she sighed and snuggled into the cloak he'd draped over her. He gave a quiet exhale of breath of his own.

Earlier, he had not meant for her to get angry at him. He had known she would jump to that conclusion, but it still stung, even now. He kneaded his forehead with his knuckles. When he'd grabbed her arm to try to slow her, the look on her face had damn near floored him. _So afraid; so vulnerable, _he thought heavily. She had looked like she wanted to cry and to hit him at the same time. Terrified. He could not believe that she thought he would ever hurt her. Although it should not have surprised him, it did.

He had recognized something in her eyes too. It was pain. Of betrayal and hurt and something lost. _Heartbreak_. Had she really loved the demon Nøkken as Neal? Only to discover he was not who she thought he was. He supposed it would have been rather traumatic for her to have trusted someone so much and then to have them not only lash out at her, but try to kill her too.

Jareth shook himself. Why should he even care? She had shattered his own heart four years ago. And yet he still found himself not wanting her to experience that pain.

He glanced down at her again. She was curled tightly on her side, her nose and mouth hidden by his midnight blue cloak. Her dark hair was slightly wavy and it was splayed around her wildly. He took a lock of it between his gloved fingers and let it fall again. As it brushed her cheek, she flinched.

"Don't," she mumbled in her sleep.

He frowned. She was not speaking to him: she was still sound asleep. He was only a little curious as to what was troubling her dreams, but he opted not to peek. In a way, he was not sure he wanted to know.

She suddenly jerked a little and gasped. Without thinking, he lay his hand down on her arm. Immediately, she seemed to relax, sinking back into peaceful slumber once more. With a sigh of resignation, he moved slightly so that he was sitting on the sofa beside her. She hardly took up any room at all, so he was not cramped.

Keeping his hand on her arm, he trailed his thumb back and forth. She was deeply asleep, but he was certain she could feel his gesture of comfort through the thin fabric of the dark cloak. A quiet mewl escaped her lips and for a moment, he had to stop himself from moving. He mentally slapped himself. Simple sleepy noises were not meant to make one's blood race.

"The things you do to me," he breathed aloud.

"Mm-hm," she mumbled back.

The ghost of a grin flitted across his lips. He lifted his hand from her arm and turned away from her. He curled his arms to rest them on the arm of the sofa and laid his head there. Sleep was overtaking him quickly tonight. Perhaps it had been a long day for both he and Sarah.

* * *

Sarah jerked so violently that she startled herself awake. She blew out a tremulous breath and wiped a sheen of sweat from her brow. The details of the nightmare were forgotten but the anxiety that came with such things still lingered.

When she sat up, something warm but thin slipped from her shoulders. She glanced down in time to see some kind of dark blanket fall to the floor. Reaching down to pick it back up, she realized with a start that this was the cloak Jareth had placed on her shoulders after he'd pulled her from the lake.

Peeking down at the other end of the sofa, she saw Jareth's form in the darkness rising and falling slowly. She leaned to the side and saw that his head rested on his own arms which were lounging on the arm of the couch. His legs were falling diagonally to the floor due to his posture.

"Jareth?" she asked uncertainly.

He continued to snore lightly.

With his cloak still wrapped around her shoulders, she stood and tiptoed over to the window. She glanced through the small crack in the curtains, but the street was completely deserted save for a cat who was chasing after a rat.

She looked back over at Jareth. He was still fast asleep. She placed the cloak back down at his side and moved into the kitchen, seeking water. Her arm stretched up to a high shelf to grab a glass. She felt along the objects there, unable to see what was a glass and what was not in the dim light.

Suddenly, her chest - her ribs, in fact - gave a painful spasm. As she hissed through her teeth, a glass toppled from the shelf. Gripping her side, she thrust her free hand out to catch the glass. It was just her luck that she missed and it shattered on the floor.

"Shit," she muttered, taking a step forwards. Her foot came down on something sharp and she leapt away. "Ow!"

Just as the kitchen light came on, she toppled over completely. The brightness hit her eyes harshly, and she shied away from it.

"What on Earth are you doing?" Jareth asked, faint traces of amusement in his voice.

Inside, Sarah seethed. It was just like him to find her misfortune funny.

"Sitting on the floor," she said bitterly, still gripping her side which was throbbing.

As he began to approach her, she felt the sole of her foot gingerly. Not giving it a second thought, she jerked the small piece of glass she felt there out of her skin. It hurt the same as before, and a few drops of blood fell onto the pristine kitchen floor.

She would clean that later, she thought as she reached forwards to scoop up the broken glass now littering the floor. Two gloved hands reached out, though, and prevented her own from going near the dangerous shards.

"Don't touch them," he warned. "You will only injure yourself further."

She watched as a clear crystal ball formed in his hand and swept over the shards of glass which all disappeared. Jareth then crouched down in front of her. Slowly and gently - as if he was somehow trying not to scare her - he took her ankle in his hand and lifted her leg slightly.

He used his teeth to pull the glove off his right hand and he held his index and middle finger up to her foot where she knew there to be a cut. A strange tingling sensation, much like pins and needles, shot over her foot. Just like that, however, it was gone and her foot no longer hurt.

"What is wrong?" Jareth asked, nodding to her side which she was still clutching.

"Oh," she said stupidly. Not sure why she was lying to him, she said, "That's nothing."

His gaze became stern and she looked away.

"Just forget about it," she muttered.

Sarah tried to stand, but Jareth moved his hands from her ankle to her upper arms, not letting her move.

"Whatever it is, I can fix it," he said.

"It's fine," she insisted.

Jareth gave a low growl and pulled her closer. The sudden movement and the slipperiness of the floor caused her to slide under him. In a moment of panic, she brought her hands up and pushed against his shoulders. A small whimper escaped her.

She glanced up into his eyes, and his stare was hard and even angry.

"Jareth, just leave it!" she snapped. "You're hurting me."

His expression softened and his grip loosened, but he still did not let her go.

"That is not my intention, Sarah," he promised. "Just let me see it."

His voice was soft. It caressed her name like a feather. He let her go slowly so that she could gain some kind of balance and he moved back to give her space. She lifted her t-shirt slightly to show him the dark bruise.

He studied the blemish for a few moments, his face growing significantly darker.

"You told me you had no bruises," he said, voice dangerously low.

"I lied," she answered bravely.

"Sarah, this is broken. Have you any idea how dangerous an injury this is to have?"

"So heal it, if you're so worried! And stop getting so pissy with me!"

Jareth glanced up at her and for a moment, she expected him to maybe scream at her. But he gave a short laugh and held his fingers to the bruise. She felt it tingling, then the pain was gone. The bruise remained though.

Jareth pulled his glove back on as Sarah got to her feet. She yawned widely and leaned on the fridge for support.

"Go to bed, Sarah," Jareth suggested, though it sounded strangely like a command to her. "You've had a long day."

He was right. And she was exhausted from it. Without more than a simple "Okay" muttered to him, she left the kitchen and hurried up the stairs. She closed the door to her bedroom immediately behind her and curled up on the bed.

Why could she not relax around him? She was either scared, angry, upset or all three. It had only been a few hours and it was extremely tiring.

Hopefully, things would be different tomorrow.

**Shorter chapter. Very Jareth-ful at the start. PLEASE review :D I love getting them :D And I love getting back to you :P**


	5. Chapter 4: Promises Made

**It's only been a few hours! Is this chapter five already? Well, I guess technically it's chapter 4 seeing as there was a prologue. Thanks for reviewing and adding to alerts and such :D I must have lied about Maya because she'll be making a little appearance in this one. But she will NOT be a regular character! :(  
Also, after reading this chapter, I moved it to M, but the new restrictions mean it won't be as good as the M's we all know and love. It's just due to the nature of some of the events. It's not Sarah and Jareth though...yet ;)**

Jareth had not slept again after Sarah had left to go to bed. While it had been several hours here, he supposed it would have only been a couple back Underground and he seemed to be having some kind of trouble adjusting to the time difference.

He had already helped himself to the limited supply of food in the kitchen. The 'limited' state of affairs was explained when Sarah came downstairs at around ten. She was fully dressed and was forcing shoes onto her feet though they seemed a little too small. She seemed somewhat wary around him, but he did not bother saying anything. Calling her out on it would probably only embarrass her.

She hurried around making food for herself and he simply watched her. As she buttered toast, she threw open a door in the kitchen and a massive shaggy dog bounded in. He kept his eyes on her in some kind of fascination as she ripped the crusts off the slightly burnt toast and tossed them to the mutt, who then proceeded to bark wildly, as if asking for more.

"Shut it, Merlin!" Sarah ordered, and the dog obediently quietened and lay down, simply staring at her. She turned to face him. "I have to go out for a bit and get some food in. I shouldn't be too long. Merlin, stay."

"Would it not be safer if I accompanied you?" he demanded, trying to figure out her logic. Was it not just last night she had asked him not to leave because she was scared?

"Evidence to the contrary aside, Jareth: I don't need a chaperone," she said, voice laced with amusement. He almost smiled. That fire seemed to have returned some time between the shattering of the glass and her shower this morning. "I'll be out for an hour at the most and Merlin isn't bad company so long as he's behaving."

Jareth glanced down at the dog and back at the girl before him. She was holding herself differently, somehow. He smirked, but it was a grim one. Perhaps relieving her of the pain of her broken ribs had made her cocky. Did she no longer remember how dangerous the demon was?

He was certain he had read something about Aboveground customs. Women with broken hearts moped for a while then got a new zest for life out of nowhere. He frowned. Maybe that was a movie he had seen. He seemed to remember the particular heroine of that movie becoming incredibly annoying once she had hit stage two of her heartbreak.

He dearly hoped Sarah was not about to invite the girls over for a party.

She began talking again when he did not speak.

"You don't have to baby me," she insisted. "I'll be fine for the hour or so it's going to take for me to drive a couple of miles to the store."

The look in her eyes told him he was not going to win this fight. How odd. Or normal. Perhaps he'd gotten used to a Sarah who needed reassurance and gentleness in the past few hours.

He watched the back of her head as she left.

oOoOoOoOo

Sarah was not quite sure where it had come from. She rememberd going to bed feeling rather down and shaky. She had awoken feeling quite hyperactive and happy. She did not question it though. She did not care where it came from as long as it stayed.

She received somewhat of a fright when she was half-way through rummaging shelves for the wet dog food that Merlin liked so much. There was a loud shriek and when she glanced around, red hair and bright eyes were flying towards her. She managed not to drop her basket as Maya flung her arms around her neck.

"You're okay!"

"If you keep squeezing me like that, I won't be!" Sarah joked.

Maya released her. Her beam was a thousand watts.

"By the way, we were watching you from over there-" She gestured off to the left where a brown-haired Joey was leaning against the wall waiting for her. "-and we've both noticed how happy you look today! Did you get what I got last night with that hottie who was in your house?"

Sarah's eyes widened in shock.

"W-What?" she stuttered.

"You know? The leather-clad blonde _hunk _who was looming behind you last night with his sultry British tones?"

"Oh - him - ew, NO!" she said indignantly, realizing who her friend was talking about.

"Seriously? Well, I suppose you did look pretty upset. What happened, anyway? I didn't wanna talk in front of new boyfriend."

"Woah, slow down," Sarah muttered. "His name's Jareth and he is _not _my boyfriend."

"He isn't?" Maya demanded, incredulous. "I kinda thought that - I mean, the way he looked at you..." Sarah did not want to ask about the way the Goblin King looked at her, so she didn't. "Anyway, what happened? You looked like shit last night."

She could not tell her friend the truth. Perhaps she would just twist it a little.

"I ran into Neal last night and I was pretty upset so I called Jareth and asked him to come over," she said. "I knew him from a few years ago."

"That's it? And he came just like that?"

Sarah smiled knowingly at her friend but said little more than, "He's always been there for me, really. I just didn't realize it until yesterday."

"Poetic," Maya laughed. "I really have to go. By the way, tell _Jareth _that whatever he did to cheer you up, do more of it."

Sarah stared after the girl's red hair as she rushed away. After a moment of disbelief, she turned and began grabbing items off the shelves.

Though she did not want to think about it, she had to wonder exactly how Jareth had been looking at her. Even as she left the store, bags in hand, she thought about it. Did he really care about her that much? She did not find it as difficult to believe as she thought she would.

She guessed that when she was fifteen and over the last few years she had convinced herself that his final offer was a lie; that the words he sang to her in the ballroom were meant to distract.

As she placed the bags of food in the car and slammed the door, she caught sight of something in the glass. She had no time at all to process what she was seeing in the morning sun before she was scrambling at the door, trying to open it. The breath was knocked from her lungs as her body was smashed into the car and the man - the demon - behind her pressed himself hard against her back. His hands came to her waist, holding her securely. She could not move.

"Fancy meeting you here, Sarah," he hissed. "And with no Goblin King in sight."

She swallowed and took a deep breath.

"You don't scare me, Nøkken," she hissed bravely.

"Don't I?" he murmured against her ear. She shivered. "Was it not you who just two weeks ago was crying and shaking in my house like a frightened little animal?"

Sarah felt her face flush with shame.

"Things are different now."

"Why? Because you have the Goblin King on your side? I don't see him now, sweet. Do you?"

His tongue flicked across the shell of her ear. She glanced around, panicking. Why was there no one here to see what was going on? She tried to elbow him, but due to the angle of her arms, she could not move those either. Nøkken laughed.

"Stop this," she pleaded quietly as his fingers danced up her arm.

"Why, sweet? I thought we were in love," he mocked.

_So did I, _she thought miserably as a tear escaped her.

"Why are you doing this?" she dared. "What did I do to you?"

"You escaped me," he said simply. "I always get what I want, sweet thing. One way or another."

His hands began sliding towards her chest and she slammed her eyes shut.

"Wait!" she gasped. "C-Can I ask you something?"

"I do not see why not," he replied evenly, though his hands did not stop.

"How can you walk on land? How were you able to go back to that lake?" she quickly asked.

Nøkken laughed quietly and she trembled.

"Did the Goblin King ask you to find that out?" he chuckled. "I'm afraid that neither of you will ever know. Now, when you're ready, I'll begin playing that music you find so irresistable."

Sarah froze. She knew she could not stop herself from doing whatever he wanted with that music playing.

"N-No, don't-"

A strange, pained squeal escaped her as his hands suddenly became like stone on her breasts and his fingers tightened. She was certain there would actually be bruises there soon. Nøkken moved his head so that his lips were pressed lightly against her ear.

"In good time, sweetling," he said, his voice holding a dark promise that made her tremble. "I'm afraid you caught me off guard today and I'm not quite ready for you just yet."

With that he was gone. Sarah realized that he had been the only thing holding her up when her knees gave way and she sank to the ground. She glanced around, but there was no one there. She swallowed what tasted like bile in her mouth and leapt up, throwing herself into the car.

oOoOoOoOo

As soon as Sarah walked through the door, he could tell something was wrong. She did not look at him, or even the blasted dog as she passed them and her movements seemed jerky. She hurried around putting groceries away and he simply stood in the door to the kitchen, watching her.

Once she was finished, she moved towards the door. He frowned. Something was wrong and she was not going to tell him what it was. Unless he made her.

Jareth threw his arm out, blocking the doorway fully. She froze, but did not look at him.

"Please move," she said quietly.

"Do not take me for an idiot, Sarah," he said harshly. "What happened?"

Without warning of any kind, she suddenly burst into tears. He was so startled by it that his arm slipped from the door and his mouth fell open, and she walked right past him. He huffed and followed her. It seemed that he was not only going to live up to her expectations, he was going to be her slave too, and she was conforming to none of her part of the offer he'd made. That hardly seemed fair.

"Sarah, stop walking away from me!" he ordered, increasingly angry by her defiances. She did not falter in her pace, but continued towards her bedroom. "Don't you dare slam that door on me!" he commanded, sensing what she was about to do.

He let out a deep growl of frustration when she did just that. He could have used magic, but he was well beyond that. He had _just _gotten the normal, brave and fiery Sarah back. And here was the weepy, scared one again. He thrust his foot into the door before it was closed fully, though. She vainly tried to hold it shut.

With a simple shove, the door flew open and Sarah leapt back from it. He felt a small stab of guilt when she took several steps away from him in fear, but his blood was boiling.

"Just tell me what is wrong!"

She stopped moving and lifted her arms to hug herself.

"Jareth, he - almost - I - touched -"

The anger that was aimed at her melted. He did not need to hear anything else. He understood. And he was furious. With a snarl, he turned from her and stormed away. He was afraid that he would unleash his temper on her, and that was the last thing either of them wanted.

He was going to tear Nøkken apart. Blast him into oblivion. Or maybe tear him apart and blast the bloody pieces into a different oblivion. How dare that thing touch his Sarah? Although something deep below his anger noted that he had probably done this before when they'd been 'dating', as Sarah had put it. He wondered if she'd had the nerve to have sex with the demon posing as a harmless human. He shivered at the thought that it would have forced her.

Trembling fingers gripped the sleeve of his shirt, and he had a strange feeling that if it had been anyone else, he would have killed them then and there for trying to stop him.

"Jareth, please wait," she whispered.

He steeled himself against his rage and looked down at her.

"Are you angry at me?" she dared.

His resolve not only cracked, it shattered completely. There was absolutely nothing he could have done to stop himself. He yanked her closer and practically crushed her to his body. She froze for a moment.

"Do not be ridiculous, Sarah," he chastised.

She relaxed in his deathly grip and wrapped her arms around his torso. For a strange moment, he felt oddly content with the trembling, sobbing girl in his arms. He only wished she was not there due to fear and upset.

_Just stop crying, _he begged internally. _I cannot take any more of this crying._

"Crying does not become you," he said rather bluntly.

"Jareth, he scares me so much," she confessed. "I just want him to leave me alone."

"I will find away to get rid of him, Sarah. Once and for all," he promised her.

"I-I tried to find out where he gets his power from, but he just laughed."

"Brave of you," he commented. "But we'll find another way. I swear it to you. If you'll trust me."

She moved her head from against his chest to look up at him. After a few moments, she spoke.

"I do trust you," she breathed.

His hands went to cup her face gently.

"Then, precious thing, stop flinching when I come near you."

The endearment came out before he could catch himself, but Sarah said nothing of it. Something behind her eyes flickered; almost broke. Jareth actually felt a strange lump in his throat.

"I can't help it," was all she said.

"Sarah, I swear this to you, I will never hurt you. Not like he did. Not ever."

Even before he said it, Jareth knew what he was promising. He was vowing to never physically harm her, to never break her heart, to never assault her in ways that would be considered less than gentlemanly. He did realize now, though, that some of these would be difficult to abide by. Especially since it was Sarah Williams he was dealing with.

**I was gonna continue it but I couldn't do any more with this chapter. URGH, it was cliché. But I guess most Labyrinth fanfics are pretty much like that. Please review :D**


	6. Chapter 5: Mumbles

**Chapter 5 or 6 if we count the prologue as chapter 1. Deal with it :P One particular reader of this story was kind of unnervingly RIGHT about ****Nøkken's power. Although the idea has probably been done before. Kudos to who guessed right! You know who you are.**

"Sarah," Jareth said, his eyes burning into hers.

She glanced up at him from the sofa. Since their confrontation in the bedroom, they'd moved downstairs to wait on what Sarah deemed was good food being delivered. He himself found pizza to be rather tasteless and somewhat disgusting, but it was edible, if anything.

He had been tempted to say it when they had been arguing - if one could call it that - but had been too lost in the moment of holding her. Not that he found pizza to be gross, it was about the Norse demon. Now, he realized, was not the best time to bring it up, but he was the Goblin King, and he did not usually worry about such things.

"You must stop trying to defend him," he stated bluntly.

"What?" Sarah asked dumbly.

"You heard me," he said. "You tried to say he did not hit you as hard as he did. Earlier, you tried to pretend that you had not even met him when you had. It does not matter what you thought you felt for him before, he would happily kill you the first chance he got if I was not here."

Sarah sighed, defeated. He felt a pang of guilt. He did not want to be the one defeating her and stripping her of that fire. And still she did not argue with him. She didn't even makes excuses for herself.

With her eyes cast to the floor, her lashes fanned out over her cheeks which were flushed a pleasant pink. She looked beautiful. It was rather sad. He wishes he could just-

He shook himself from that thought. He had to try to figure out how Nøkken was able to retain life and form outside of water. _And _how he was able to even go near the particular lake he had banished him from. Obviously, there was something more powerful at work here. The question was: what? Nøkken's power was in his music, but the only thing it could do was hypnotize the bodies of victims to move against their will. It was not possible that music was making him stronger. It was not that potent.

Perhaps it was revenge. That in itself was a powerful thing, though it could not increase magic levels. It was simply strong motivation. It did make sense that Nøkken would be motivated to get revenge on both Jareth and Sarah. Sarah was the one that got away. And Jareth was the one who'd aided her. No, it had to be more than that. The demon had known about his feelings for Sarah and tried to exploit it.

_"And yet here we stand. Me with the girl, you with nothing."_

There was no possible way for Nøkken to know of how much he desired the girl. There was something else at work here, something bigger. He was not a creature of the Underground, so it could not have passed by ear. Unless he had specifically sought out someone...or someone had specifically sought out him.

Jareth rarely blanched, but he did now.

Ifreann.

It had been almost fifty years since he had had to worry about him. He glanced at Sarah but she was staring into nothing, oblivious to his tension. He had to force himself not to groan aloud. If Nøkken was being aided by Ifreann and his magic, this was bad, to say the least. The other Fae was violent, had a rather unstable mind and just happened to have a personal vendetta against Jareth. He could not even remember why, but it could have been nothing. Ifreann was quite insane and tended to be nuerotic about strange things.

Fighting the urge to throw something, Jareth clenched his fist. The last thing he needed to be dealing with was Nøkken with Ifreann's insanity and power behind him. Perhaps if he could do something about Ifreann first, Nøkken would simply leave Sarah like he was supposed to.

Jareth sighed. For the first time in over one hundred years, he needed guidance. Advice. Then again, what if Ifrean was _not _behind this? There would still be something larger at work. At least with Ifreann, he would understand why. Sort of.

He rubbed at his forehead, trying to rid himself of the migraine coming on.

"Are you okay?"

Her concerned voice snapped him out of the trance he'd thought himself into. He glanced over at her. She did not look overly worried, only curious.

"Absolutely," he said calmly. "I'm merely thinking of a solution to our problem."

"Our problem..." she scoffed.

"Pardon?"

"Well, it's just that it's not really our problem at all, is it? It's my problem. You could leave any time you wanted and not have to deal with this."

_It is more my problem than you think, precious...especially if the Fae Ifreann is involved._

"And here I was thinking you blamed me," he teased, a smirk tugging at his lips.

"About that..." she said quickly. "I...I realize that you couldn't have known what would happen. So...I'm sorry. For yelling at you. And ignoring you. And...for lying to you."

Her apology touched him somewhere and made him want to embrace her. She need not have apologized. He stood without realizing it and approached her. He cupped her cheek for a moment.

"Thank you, Sarah."

* * *

Jareth had spent most of the day thinking to himself and not speaking to her. Now, he was asleep on the sofa, stretched along the full length of it, breathing deeply. She studied his face with fascination as she sipped hot chocolate meant to make her sleepy and relaxed enough to go to bed.

Only a single candle was burning on the coffee table making it difficult to see. But not too difficult to hear. Jareth was mumbling to himself in his sleep. She'd never figured him to be a mumbler like herself. At a first glance, she supposed he would be the type do does not move nor make a noise whilst asleep. But no.

He was contantly surprising her.

_"You're not leaving, are you?"_

_"Never..."_

The tenderness in that single word had touched her.

_"...precious thing..."_

She had said nothing about it at the time, but now it made her feel strange. Like there were butterflies in her stomach.

_"You're hurting me."_

_"That is not my intention, Sarah."_

That had shocked her. He had come to help her but she had assumed there was an ulterior motive. Perhaps to get revenge on her for besting him and his ingenious Labyrinth. So far, he had exhibited only concern and even care for her. Not the hate she had imagined.

_"Are you angry?"_

_"Do not be ridiculous."_

"...ridiculous..."

She jerked in fright when he spoke. His brows were drawn down into a scowl, even in his deep sleep.

"What's ridiculous?" she asked with some amusement.

He muttered something incoherent and she giggled. Setting her half-empty mug on the table, she got up, aiming to go to bed.

"Wait!" Jareth suddenly yelped.

With a start, she whipped around to see what was wrong, but he was still fast asleep. The frown on his face told her that he was not having a pleasant dream, whatever it was.

She made to leave again but Jareth gave another moan of protest in his slumber. She cautiously moved towards him, her hand out.

"Jareth?" she whispered uncertainly.

She laid her hand down on his shoulder and he immediately relaxed.

"Jareth..." she murmured again.

Sighing, she turned to leave again. A surprised squeal escaped her when Jareth's hands suddenly shot out before she could turn. They grabbed her waist and rather forcefully yanked her down to him. She threw out her hands to avoid smacking into his chest with her face. As she landed on top of him, he rolled slightly so that they were both on their sides.

Heart pounding, she tried to move, but Jareth's arms were tightly around her waist, anchoring her to him, and his sleeping form was practically crushing her against the back of the sofa. She pushed lightly on his chest to try to escape without waking him, but he held fast. It was a terrifying thought that he was still so strong, even when unconscious.

Though she was startled and her hands shook, she noticed that he looked so much more at peace with her so close. Somewhat gingerly, she relaxed in his hold. In order to be more comfortable, she leaned her head forwards so that her forehead was pressed against his chest. The entire length of his body pushed against hers and his arms around her were so tight that she almost could not breathe.

And yet...she could not remember ever feeling so comfortable and safe in another's arms. Jareth curled a little so that his face was nestling in her thick hair.

"You'd better be asleep, Jareth," she warned half-heartedly as her eyes fell closed.

* * *

Sarah's eyes fluttered. She was far too hot and her left arm was numb from lying on it. Her face was squished against something solid and warm, and she quickly remember last night. It was Jareth's chest. She gave a small yawn and glanced up at him.

She was not sure if it was horror or something else that made her face flush with embarrassment as his eyes twinkled deviously down at her. He smirked widely.

"Good morning, Sarah," he said rather pleasantly, but the smirk let her know he was mocking her. "Have you any idea why I woke up this morning to find you resting snugly in my arms?"

She pushed against him, unable to concentrate with his hot breath blowing over her. His grip constricted, keeping her firmly in place.

"Where do you think you're going?" he teased. "I do believe I asked you a question."

"You were talking in your sleep last night," she muttered quickly.

His smirk widened, if that was even possible.

"And you decided to comfort me," he said, his eyes laughing.

She glared.

"No! I-" She broke off. Unsure as to what made her, she went on to say, "Yeah. That's what I decided. Now can you let me go?"

"Not just yet," he said. "I think you deserve a little thanks for your efforts, precious."

There was that word again. _Precious...precious thing._ It sent a flutter through her heart and made her feel like she was literally melting.

Suddenly, Jareth moved. He did so at such a speed that she was quite disoriented. One moment she was on her side, crushed between the back of the sofa and Jareth's body. Now, she was lying on her back and he was laying between her legs, his midriff pressed distractingly to hers.

Her heart was thrumming wildly with a kind of excitement she had not experienced before. It both thrilled and scared her.

One of Jareth's hands found its way into the hair at the back of her head, twisting it gently and lifting her head a little. His other hand remained on the sofa, keeping his full weight off her. His own head dipped and his lips grazed hers delicately.

She had imagined this more times than she would care to admit, but she had always thought that if by some miracle it actually happened, she would reject it. Would panic and fight her way free. She was doing none of these things...except maybe panicking. If anything, however, she craved more of it. A simple peck was simply not enough.

Jareth seemed to be thinking along the same lines. His lips were gentle at first and slow. Then she felt his tongue slide along her lower lip. She gladly opened for him and he wasted no time in deepening the kiss. At first, she was almost unsure, but within seconds her tongue was dancing with his, her eyes falling closed. His taste, his smell: they were making her dizzy. She even felt her lips starting to bruise, but she did not care. She wanted more of it.

He ground himself against her and she felt strange waves of heat radiate from her pelvis outwards caused by the weight there. Wanting more still, she raised her own hips to meet the friction he was causing. He pulled back from her lips and she gasped for breath. He was doing the same. She smiled up at him, and he dove back down.

This time, his lips found her jaw and travelled down over her neck and chest to the opening of the thin strappy top she wore with her pyjama trousers. Sarah arched her back, trying to feel more of the tingles and waves of heat he was sending through her with his every touch. She ran her hands up his back and he shivered.

"Oh, Sarah," he hissed out.

"Jareth," she gasped back.

His hands wandered down to the fringes of the top she wore and tantalizingly began to push it up. His fingers trailed lightly over her flat stomach as he did so. It was only when it was several inches up past her naval that she remembered the bruises on her breasts from Nøkken's sick hold on her.

She did not want Jareth to see the marks. It was far too embarrassing. She placed her hands on his pectorals and shoved hard.

"Wait, wait a minute."

They both heard the strange waver in her voice and he paused. After a few seconds, he pulled himself off her and stood. She felt oddly cold without him and his warmth covering her.

"I'm sorry, Sarah. I went too far."

As she sat up, she realized he must have mistaken her hesitation for fear. Or even rejection. Again.

He began to walk away from her.

"Jareth!" she called. "I wish-"

He whipped around to look at her, a wild look in his eye. A mixture of unsated lust, excitement and anticipation.

"Yes?"

"I..." She paused. What did she wish? "Ah...nothing."

**See? It's been done before! As with most Labyrinth fanfics. Ah well. Anyhoo, I discovered AFTER I wrote this that Ifreann means hell in Irish.**

**I tried to make the Sarah/Jareth interactions towards the end not too explicit, lest I should be banned. BUT, I promise y'all that if there ever IS a chapter too explicit for this site, I'll post it on DeviantART for y'all :P And I'll let y'all know when I do. Y'all.**

**Warning, shit will go down come chapter 6.**


	7. Chapter 6: Promises Broken

**I am absolutely LOVING writing this story. My reviewers rock harder than Bowie himself at this point. (Quite a compliment, if you ask me. XD).**

**This could be considered a chapter in which Jareth is quite stupid and even extremely mean. But he can be cruel, remember. He said so himself.  
AND MORE MAYA! I was convinced she wasn't going to be making a regular appearance.**

**We've hit another problem with my laptop. Trojans and malware and all that SO, updates may be scarce for a while because I'm too scared to turn my laptop back on XD. In the meantime, please enjoy :P**

"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded with a teasing wink as she pushed half-heartedly against him. "I do believe I asked you a question."

Waking just a few minutes ago to find Sarah Williams snuggled in his arms comfortably was definitely what had given him his cockiness. He did not remember putting her there which he supposed meant she had gotten there herself. All the better for him.

"You were talking in your sleep last night."

Jareth felt a rush of warmth towards the slim young woman he held onto so tightly. However, he managed to keep up the mocking facade.

"And you decided to comfort me."

She protested for a moment, then suddenly agreed with him. _Odd._

"Now can you let me go?"

With a surge of confidence, he smirked.

"Not just yet. I think you deserve a little thanks for your efforts, precious."

He saw the look of confusion in her eyes when he used the endearment, but he did not even care. It would soon be explained to her.

Keeping one arm securely around her torso which was pressed so perfectly against his, he quickly sat himself up. The sudden movement - and probably partial numbness in her legs - meant that she could really do nothing about it when he swiftly laid her down under him. Her legs - again, probably numb - seemed to splay for him and he quickly settled himself between them out of what one might call fear, should she close them.

It was perfect for a moment. If he moved a certain way...but no. He needed to take it slowly. He delicately fisted her hair and lifted her head so that he could meet her lips. They barely touched, but a spark of something shot through him when they did, and he wanted - needed - more of it.

He pressed his lips more firmly against hers, trying to be gentle. As he began to move them, her lips responded. Wanting to see how far she would allow him to go, he trailed his tongue across her lip. To his surprise, she opened, and he could not help himself. He kissed her hard and fierce. Her taste was driving him insane. He wanted her so badly. He needed her.

His hips seemed to move of their own accord. He pushed, pressed and ground against her as if trying to take her despite her pyjamas and the clothes he wore. It was almost too much to bare when she rocked in time with him, causing more pressure.

Pulling back so they could both regain their breath, she smiled up at him. Her eyes were alight with excitement. Her cheeks were flushed. He moved back towards her, kissing from her jaw to her chest, trying to taste as much of her slightly sweaty skin as possible. He trembled when he felt her light touch on his back. Even through the shirt, he felt her nails there, scratching upwards, sending ripples of pleasure through him.

"Sarah," he hissed, trying to warn her somehow that he did not have as much control as she would like to think.

"Jareth."

That was it. He needed her now. He feared he would go quite mad if he did not have her. He was quivering with anticipation. Heat and desire swirled inside him. He _needed _her. And he would damn well have her after waiting for four years.

He went to the bottom of the shirt she was wearing and began to lift it upwards. Suddenly, though, he felt her hands on his chest pushing.

"Wait. Wait a minute!" her voice wavered.

He froze. There it was. That little sliver of rejection he'd been fearing, dreading. Something cold seemed to plunge into him and he pushed himself off her.

"I'm sorry, Sarah," he said, hoping she was not as terrified as he expected her to be. "I went too far."

"Jareth, I wish-"

He spun wildly, some trace of pathetic hope left in him. She froze, looking unsure.

"Yes?" he prompted.

"I...ah, nothing."

"What do you mean, nothing?" he demanded, rage suddenly clouding his vision.

"Jareth...I don't know what you want me to say," she said weakly, holding her hands out as if hoping someone would drop the answer into them.

He gritted his teeth, not entirely sure where his anger was coming from. He only knew that a familiar heat was coursing through his veins like venom, making him rigid with rage.

"Perhaps you could explain what you think you are doing!"

"What?" she asked, her voice rising in pitch.

"Really, Sarah, I always thought that leading a man on was beneath you," he spat viciously.

She jumped to her feet suddenly, her chest and face turning red and blotchy in anger. He could not care less how angry she was at that moment. It could never match what he felt.

"That's not what I wa-"

"This is the second time you have rejected me, _precious_," he hissed. "Did you do this to _Neal _too? Or did you offer yourself up as a whore to him?"

Two long strides was all it took for Sarah to reach him. His head whipped to the side before he felt the actual sting of her slap as she glared up at him, tears of anger and hurt in her eyes. Her whole body was shaking now as she fought to keep herself under control, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

"You bastard!" she shrieked.

"How dare y-!"

As her hand reared back to hit him again, he grabbed her wrist in an iron grip and squeezed. To her credit, she did not flinch where many would have shrieked. She tugged against him, but he did not release her. He felt sure that if he did not release her soon, however, he would end up breaking her wrist.

He pulled her closer and leaned down, his voice and gaze threatening; warning.

"If you _ever _try to slap me again-"

"What?" she demanded, her voice unnaturally shrill with he did not care what. "You'll call me a whore again? Hit me back? Do it, Goblin King! It's nothing I'm not used to!"

With a growl of frustration, he threw her arm from his hand. Not quite as hard as he could, but just enough so that she stumbled several paces away and clutched at her already bruising joint, glaring at him with eyes that could kill. His mind vaguely registered that he had just broken his promise to her, but he was well beyond caring about that, or even rational thought.

"Are you trying to make me feel bad, Sarah? The Goblin King does not feel things such as guilt."

"Oh?" she asked, a hint of sarcasm in her high, loud voice. "And I suppose he doesn't feel a little upset over rejection? A little pissed off? You're so pathetic!"

He took a step towards her, intent on throttling her. She jerked back from him. He stopped himself and closed his eyes, trying to regain some composure. When he opened his eyes, Sarah had her arms crossed and her weight was resting on one leg causing her hip to jut out defiantly.

"You are about to cross a very thin line, girl," he told her through gritted teeth.

"_I'm _about to cross the line? What the hell do you think you just did?" she dared him. "You know what, Goblin King, if you can't handle the fact that I had second thoughts for a tiny second after what I've been through in the last few weeks, then you can leave! And for your information, you arrogant ass, I never slept with him. Not once!"

Jareth remained where he was, muscles tense, jaw clenched. He glared at the annoying little brat. The violent side of him wanted to rip her apart for daring to speak to him in such a way and striking him. The rational side of him - the one that was reminding him that every second they spent arguing, he was breaking his promise to her - seemed to be fighting with violence and anger. It was losing.

"What are you still doing here?" she shouted, angry tears falling fast. "Get out!"

She stepped towards him and shoved his chest. He barely felt the push, and did not move. He would be damned if the little chit thought she could order him around like he was some child.

Sarah gave a shriek of frustration and curled her fist. His rationality was coming back, if only a little. He caught her fist before it made contact with him, knowing that she would only end up hurting herself. She yanked her arm away, taking several steps back. He followed her until her back hit the wall and she could not move any further.

He brought his hands down at either side of of her head, and the wall actually cracked at her side. She flinched and he moved closer to her, not entirely sure why he was trying to frighten her. He only knew that he had had quite enough of her attacks.

"Don't you dare touch me," she hissed, glaring up at him as he towered over her.

"The same to you," he spat back.

"Oh, please, you barely felt that," she scoffed.

"True," he smirked. "But it's the principle."

"Get away from me," she demanded, pushing hard at his chest.

"Make me," he dared. "Prove to me that I have no power over you."

Her lower lip trembled when she opened her mouth.

"I wish you would get out of my house..."

"You will not reject me a third time, Sarah Williams."

"Right now!"

He transformed himself into an owl and took off through the window that magically opened for him, before he ended up doing something he would seriously regret. She did not call him back and he did not care. He did not want to return.

oOoOoOoOo

Sarah barely saw him leave through her eyes that were filled with tears. She wiped them away and once she was sure he was out of earshot, she let out a scream of anger and hurt. Much like the bratty teenager she used to be, she kicked at things and threw pillows, but it relieved nothing.

She picked up the mug of half-drank, cold hot chocolate and threw it so hard into the sink that it shattered. She left the pieces strewn around the worktops where they were.

She hated the Goblin King.

Glancing at the table in the hallway, she sighed and moved towards it. She picked up the phone receiver and dialled.

_"Yo, Maya here!"_

Her voice was too painfully cheerful for Sarah to handle.

"Maya," she said slowly.

_"Sarah, what is it? Are you okay?"_

"Can you please come over? Something happened with Jareth and I...I don't-"

_"Alright, girl, just stay calm!" _Maya chimed down the phone, concerned. _"I'll come over right now. I'll bring the ice cream."_

**I realize Jareth's outburst here is quite OOC for the kind of guy I've been portraying him as. BUT as most people will know, anger makes you do and say crazy things. Much like love. Throw them both into the mix, add a little bit of rejection and past heartbreak and you've got some pretty hurtful things to say.**

**As I said, updates will slow a bit due to virus attacks on my precious laptop which I only just got back XD. My excuse? I'm sharing a family computer with two parents and two younger siblings and sometimes an older one. Please review :3**


	8. Chapter 7: Coping Or Not

**Chapter 7! We got here fast! HERE is Maya's third appearance...she should only have had one ¬_¬ Damn OC's, makin' their way into the story.**

"What a dick!" Maya said, sounding completely outraged. "Joey, will you tell her that he was being a dick?"

The red-haired girl scooped more ice cream originally intended for Sarah into her mouth. Sarah had not touched it. This was beyond the ice cream, and Maya did not quite seem to understand this. This was trust shattered for a second time.

"Yeah, it does sound like he was bein' a dick," Joey agreed.

"Gosh, and I really thought that you two were perfect. I mean, what's it been, two days? And it's already gone to hell. Damn, Sarah. You and your luck with men."

"Tell me about it," she replied half-heartedly.

"But..."

Both girls glanced at Joey, Maya glaring especially hard.

"Well, think of it from his point of view. He left because he was obviously pretty pissed, right?" Sarah nodded. "I mean, you slugged him and you were gonna do it again. Maybe he was worried that he was gonna end up hurting you back?"

"Joey, he called her a whore!" Maya defended. "And not just any whore, Neal's whore! Besides, he _did _hurt her. Look at that! It's gotta hurt like a bitch."

Maya grabbed Sarah's hand and yanked it out to Joey so that they could all scrutinize the rather dark bruise now forming all around her wrist. It would have fit Jareth's hand perfectly. In fact, it did.

"Yeah, but that was an accident, wasn't it? I mean, I wouldn't wanna be slapped again either."

Sarah felt a strange rush of gratitude towards Joey. She did not want any misunderstandings. Jareth had not hurt her intentionally, she was certain of that, and she was not sure he ever would. But as Maya said...

"He still hurt her! He left a bruise _just _like Neal did! I don't know why you're defending him! You don't even know him."

Joey looked at them both, wringing his hands in a strangely calm manner.

"Look at it this way. He got rejected and then got pissed off. Then he left when he was kicked out. Not a word since. On the other hand, when Neal was rejected, he tried to force himself on you, Sarah. He hit you, he threatened you, he stalked you and called you almost all the time. Just think about it."

The three were silent for a while as Maya shovelled more ice cream down her throat. If only they knew the whole truth of it. Jareth would be a saint compared to her water demon. He was.

"I know that out of the two, Jareth is the better man," Sarah admitted. "It's just...he knows everything that happened between me and Neal and he still had the nerve to say what he did. He promised me he wouldn't ever hurt me, but he did."

Maya sighed in an odd mixture of defeat and triumph. Joey simply sighed.

"Where'd he fly off to, anyway?" Maya asked.

Sarah flinched at her choice of words. Because he, in fact, had flown away.

"Home, I think."

"Where's he live?" Maya asked. "You want me kick his ass for you?"

Sarah laughed weakly and looked out of the window which she had left open since Jareth had exited through it.

"He doesn't live anywhere near here."

* * *

Jareth paced the throne room furiously. To relieve his tension and anger, he had already bogged several goblins and tasked some with the job of retrieving them. He had also conjured several crystals with the intentions of looking in on Sarah, but after catching a glimpse of her with her red-haired friend and a tanned boy he assumed to be the Joey she had spoken of, he shattered every crystal he held.

The goblins had sensed the mood he was in almost instantly and they had ushered each other and their prized chickens from the room to leave him alone (and save themselves from bogging).

As he paced, he only got himself angrier instead of calming down. How dare she speak that way to him and slap him! He was the King of Goblins, Master of the Labyrinth, and Fae, no less! She should damn well be showing him the respect he deserved. And yet...

He sighed as he felt some of his anger melt. Now, he mostly felt tired, when he had just woken up not thirty minutes ago. He sank into the throne and leaned his elbows on his knees, resting his head in his hands.

When he thought about it without the red anger clouding his judgement and rationality, he realized how royally he had just cocked up. She had trusted him and he had blown at the first sign of hesitation. She hadn't even told him to stop, she'd simply told him to wait...to wait for a measely minute! He was sure that after four years of waiting he could have managed another bloody minute! But no, of course not. He was her villain, after all. The cruel, impatient, leering and selfish Goblin King. He was a fool to think he could have been anything more to her, especially now.

What kind of anger had that been? Red and dark. Maddening. There was a name for it, but he could not quite put his finger on it.

Grinding his teeth, he summoned another crystal.

"Bring me Hoggle."

It hardly took more than a few minutes for Hoggle to shuffle into the room, nervously eyeing him. He fiddled with the jewels in the drawstring bag around his waist.

"Jareth? Er - yer majesty?"

"Hoggle," Jareth sighed. "I rarely ask for your counsel and you know that I would only do so were it important."

The Dwarf nodded and trudged towards him, wary of getting too close.

"What's this about, Jareth?"

"It is complicated and concerns Sarah," he explained, then added, just to uphold the appearance of a merciless ruler, "I do hope you can keep up."

He related the tale of Nøkken to him and skipped over the minor details of what he and Sarah had done so far. He briefly explained his concerns about Ifreann, then went straight to the fight, and he was thankful that Hoggle did not seem as angry at him as Sarah had.

"I called her a whore, Higgle!" he moaned, burying his face in his hands.

"Hoggle! An' I'm sure she'll understand if ye' jus' apologize," the Dwarf reasoned.

"She started calling me by my title again, instead of my name," he continued, not really listening to the little man who was trying to help him.

"Jareth, don't ye' think ye' should go back?" Hoggle suggested. "If what yer sayin' 'bout Ifreann an' Nøkken is true, then ye've jus' left Sarah an open target. This is jus' what they'll be wantin'."

Jareth jerked at this, but shook his head.

"She would never accept my presence if I went back now."

"That don't matter!" Hoggle said, clearly annoyed. "What if she gets killed?"

"Look at the mess I've caused after saving her life before."

Hoggle glared at the king, and Jareth found himself taken aback. The Dwarf had never had the audacity to glare before.

"Ye' love 'er, don't yer?" he demanded.

"Of course I do!" Jareth snapped. How dare this lowly creature question his love for Sarah?

"Then go an' be there fer 'er! And say sorry, while yer at it!"

Jareth scowled.

"Hedgewart, I do not care for your t-"

A strange feeling of dread suddenly washed over him, drenching him in cold and clammy anxiety. Was that a scream he could hear? He suddenly felt quite sick.

"Sarah," he gasped out.

**VERY short chapter, just to keep you all in something that resembles suspense. Reviews are much loved and they usually speed my updates :D**


	9. Chapter 8: Nøkken Begone

**I'm so excited about the speed I'm writing this story and the reviews and alerts and all that :P I'm loving discussing certain aspects of it with people :P Anyhoo, I got this done as fast as possible so I can go to bed and enjoy the rest of my weekend peacefully XD**

**There will be blood here. You have been warned.**

Sarah did the thing that most girls do after a huge fight with someone they care about. She donned sweatpants and a t-shirt that was too big. The sweatpants were of the three-quarter length kind and were a faded blue. Faded due to years of use. The baggy t-shirt was a deep baby pink with some faded slogan on it that she could no longer read.

Neither Joey nor Maya questioned it. Maya simply ate more ice cream meant for Sarah herself and Joey sat in quiet silence, thinking.

"Do you think he'll call you?" Maya asked.

"Who, Jareth? No way. He's too proud and pompous and arrogant for that."

"Okay," Maya said slowly. "Believe it or not, I think I'm sort of with Joey here. After thinking about it for a while, it makes sense. Or maybe it's too much ice cream going to my head."

"What do you mean?"

"About Jareth. I mean, I saw you guys together once and you were totally giving him the cold shoulder but...I dunno, I guess it looked like you were meant to be..."

"Together forever?" Sarah mocked half-heartedly.

"Kind of," Maya shrugged. "Why don't we list his good points and bad points and see if the good outweigh the bad?"

"Is this your idea of cheering me up?"

"Just try it!"

Sarah huffed.

"Right, well...a bad thing about him. He's selfish."

"Now a good one," Maya prompted.

"I don't want to sit here and do this," Sarah argued. Right now, Jareth had no good points.

Maya scoffed, but did not push her.

"Look, you two can leave if you want," she muttered. "I'm fine now and I kinda trashed the bathroom before you got here. I have a lot of cleaning up to do."

She blushed. Maya patted her arm sympathetically, then both she and Joey got to their feet. Sarah walked to the front door with them and waved goodbye. Once they were out of sight, she closed the door, locked it and turned. Her back fell against it and she slid down it.

She was so tired. Her eyes felt heavy and tender after crying so much. She felt shaky, scared. The bruise circling her wrist bothered her, though it was not the pain that did so.

_What's happened to me? When did I become such a wimp? Such a crybaby?_

She let her eyes fall closed in her exhaustion.

"Oh, I thought they'd never leave."

Sarah screamed.

oOoOoOoOo

Jareth transported himself without giving Hoggle an explanation. He still had not changed from the clothes he'd been wearing when he woke up: boots and tight breeches, flowing poets shirt and brown leather vest. His gloves, he removed upon arriving, throwing them carelessly onto the grass.

He was alarmed at first that he had not appeared inside the house as he'd hoped. She had wished him out, but as soon as he'd left he should have been able to go back in easily. Something was wrong. He glanced up and saw Sarah's red-haired friend and her lover on the porch of the house. The boy - Joey, he thought - was ramming his shoulder into the front door, but was having no luck in breaking it down. Maya, the girl, was beating one of the windows with a deck chair. She was not succeeding either.

As soon as she heard him, Maya turned. Her eyes glared at him almost as fiercely as Sarah's did, but hers held only anger for her friend aimed at him.

"You!" she hissed. "What the fuck do you think you're doing here? And _what _are you wearing?"

The brown haired boy suddenly grabbed his arm to spin him around, startling him.

"Dude, Sarah screamed and we can't get in!"

Jareth nodded for him to go on.

"I think Neal's in there with her," the boy went on to explain. "Damn it, it shouldn't be this hard to break down the door!"

Jareth glanced at it, his blood racing. He could sense preventative magic here. It pricked his skin unpleasantly. He held his hand up to the door and closed his eyes, willing that heat to come and break through this barrier.

"What are you doing now?" Maya demanded.

"Hush, girl!" he hissed. "And do try not to faint."

oOoOoOoOo

His voice had startled her. She could hear her friends trying to break their way in, but she knew there was no way they were going to get through. She could feel the magic all around her. It made her feel sick.

She was on her feet, facing Nøkken as he advanced slowly on her. She was not going to back away though. She was braver than this. If she could defeat a Goblin King and his army, and slap said monarch, facing this Norse water demon could not be anything more or less than a piece of cake. Right?

"You have this awful habit of showing up where you're not wanted," she hissed. "You and that stupid Goblin King."

"Oh, did you two have a fight?" he mocked, pouting. "Such a shame. He got so close, didn't he? Much closer than I ever got, my sweet Sarah. Such a pity that you had to go and spoil it all by trying to hide the evidence that you'd been touched by another. You must be so..." Nøkken paused, before purring, "...frustrated."

"You're disgusting."

Nøkken laughed. The sound made her cringe.

"Do not sound so put out, sweet Sarah. You won't have to deal with any of this very soon."

Freaked out by his words - especially how he continued to repeat "sweet" in some form or another - and the hand that was reaching out to touch her cheek, she took a step back, slapping the hand away. He continued to move towards her and now she could not help it when she stumbled back. He was not backing down again.

"Do tell, sweetling: how _are _those bruises I left you yesterday?"

She flinched.

"Oh, and what's this?" he said suddenly, looking down at her wrist. She covered the bruise self-consciously. "It seems your precious Goblin King isn't the kind-hearted fool you thought him to be."

Sarah supposed it was the anger she still felt about her fight with the Goblin King earlier and hidden anger she felt towards Nøkken that forced a wave of courage through her. She curled her fingers into a perfect fist and thrusted it upwards. Something cracked, but it was not her fist. She leapt back in surprise when blood, slightly darker than she assumed was normal, spurted from Nøkken's nose.

He yelled and, taking her chance, she bolted towards the door. She had been hoping that perhaps there was a chance she could break through the barrier from the inside. But even when she unlocked the door, it would not open; not budge an inch.

She glanced back at Nøkken who had actually stumbled into the wall and was leaning heavily against it. Blood covered his face and something like morbid hope filled Sarah. If he could bleed, he could die. He caught sight of her and began to move again, eyes practically glowing with fury. Filled with a new kind of adrenaline, she sprinted to the kitchen.

Even with his broken nose making him dizzy, Nøkken was fast. She yanked the drawer open and grabbed at the cutlery. He was on her before she could search for something that could do any real damage. She found herself facing him with a simple, stainless steel dessert spoon. He stared at it for a few moments and laughed.

Her blood was coursing so fast that she could not even stop herself. She jabbed the spoon towards his eyes, but he caught it just in time.

And he screamed.

As he leapt away from her, she could smell the putrid smell of what she assumed to be burning flesh. Even something like smoke was drifting from the skin on his hand where the spoon had touched him. He was still yelling in a horrible kind of pain as he stared at his hand.

Sarah felt slightly nauseous as the looked down at the spoon, completely bewildered. Then it hit her. Steel. Steel could kill it. She hurriedly dug through the drawer, yanking out every utensil that was made of steel. Mercilessly, she aimed and tossed them one by one at the creature who had tricked her into falling in love, then bruised and battered her soul and body, and broken her heart. The demon who had claimed to be one thing, but was another; who had claimed to love her then tried to kill her.

What disturbed her later was not how the forks and the hand whisk and such stuck to his burning skin and peeled it off in thick chunks. It was how she reveled in it. It was how truly alive she'd felt in what seemed like forever.

"Stop!" Nøkken hissed. It was more of a command, but she heard the plea in there too.

"Why?" she demanded. "Did you stop when I begged you to? When you punched me and tried to drown me, I _begged you _to stop, and you didn't even consider it. When you tried to _rape _me and I asked you to stop, did you stop? Did you? Tell me why I should stop!"

She glared down at him with hate and malice and some kind of bloodlust she was unfamiliar with, and she remembered something...

_Your eyes can be so cruel..._

Sarah faltered for a moment, and that moment was all the water demon needed. The steel that had stuck to him had fallen with patches of his burned and blistered skin. Now, he looked murderous, and even like a zombie from a movie.

He jumped at her, and his hands fastened around her neck. They both fell, and her head hit the tiled floor with a crack so loud, it frightened her. Her vision blurred slightly as something warm spread through her hair, but she managed to regain focus. He sat on top of her, his weight pinning her down so that she could not kick him. She glanced at the broken and bloody mess that was his nose.

_Boy, I can throw a punch..._

Choking, and her vision rapidly blurring again due to something warm at the back of her head and lack of oxygen, she reached up and slammed the heel of her hand into his face. He screamed again and released her neck to grasp at his nose. If it could even be called that any more.

Now he was the distracted one. She shoved him hard and he fell backwards. She tried to leap to her feet, but his hand closed around her ankle and he pulled. She heard it crack and she felt a strange click, but she felt no pain.

_Adrenaline, _she thought later.

Trapped underneath him again, she twisted, looking for something. Anything. Something was glowing in the corner of her eye, but she was too focussed on what she was doing. She stretched her arms and grabbed the hilt of a steel knife. Everything seemed to go in a blur.

Nøkken reached for her neck again.

The front door suddenly burst open and Jareth, Maya and Joey stumbled through it.

Sarah plunged the knife straight towards Nøkken's chest, slamming her eyes shut.

A strange gasp escaped everyone in the room. All were in a different kind of shock. The hands on her neck grew strangely slack. Sarah opened her eyes and squealed in horror. Nøkken's eyes were wide as he stared down at the knife in his chest which Sarah suddenly released. He glanced at her face and she felt suddenly very cold. She could see something leaving his eyes. The look in them when it left made her want to scream. Instead, her mouth fell open, but no sound came out.

The body of the demon began to slump forwards. With shaking hands, she reached up and placed her hands on his shoulders. As she sat up, she rolled to the side a little, placing his body down as gently as she dared.

She reached up to massage her neck and glanced down at the blood on her hands, and at the burnt flesh surrounding her. Blood was smeared on the floor and Nøkken's body was like something straight out of a Freddy Krueger movie. She felt sick. And incredibly dizzy.

She reached a hand up to touch the back of her head and winced. She glanced at her already swelling ankle. Swallowing the bitter taste in her throat, she grabbed the edge of the counter and struggled to pull herself up as the three people who had entered stared at her in shock. Maya's gaze drifted down to the dead body and back to her trembling friend.

"S-Sarah?" she whispered.

"I'm fi..."

Her legs shook, her breath hitched. She stumbled.

Someone was at her side in an instant though. His arm went around her waist to hold her up and she gripped his shoulders, quaking harder than she ever had in her life. What had she just done?

"Sarah," Jareth said, worry evident in his voice.

"This doesn't mean I like you," she said with as much venom as she could, though it came out as a slur. She tried to jab her finger at his chest, but her arms felt heavy, and it simply flopped clumsily against him. "And I'm still not speaking to you."

She felt Jareth's arm go under her legs and lift her. Her head rested against his shoulder, her body curling towards his warmth, but she refused to hold onto him. He gave a short, hollow laugh.

"Of course not, precious," he agreed softly.

oOoOoOoOo

Sarah's breathing was easy and deep as she slumped into unconsciousness in his arms. He could not heal her now, though. He was too drained from breaking down the barrier to get to her in the first place. The two humans behind him were panicking a little, pointing at the dead body of Nøkken which seemed to be turning to some kind of liquid, perhaps water. Jareth ignored that as he prepared himself to transport all four of them back to his castle.

Even as he did so, he glanced to the sky outside which had darkened significantly. Rain was going to pour in buckets at any second.

Jareth had the horrible feeling that this was far from over.

**Okay, the fight was rather intense for me too. I hate blood and stuff. It was a lot more intense than I intended it to be, but I suppose that adds to the effect. It's said that people will do anything to survive. Hey, what's that Saw slogan thing? About bloodshed to stay alive? I dunno cuz I don't watch much horror but it's something like that. Anyhoo, there be my excuse for the gore. Please review and feel free to tell me if you were grossed out...I was too XD Now I'm having the weekend off. Too much writing...near brain death, y'all understand XD**


	10. Chapter 9: What's Done Is Done

**Chapter 9! I love you ALL for reviewing and telling me how much more you want of this story :P I dunno how I feel about this chapter to be honest. I THINK I like it...meh, you'll all see what I mean.**

"The goblins did _what_?" the Goblin King demanded of the healer.

"They ate half of my supplies!" the short old man explained again. "I've managed to fix her ankle and her skull and stop the bleeding. Swelling's gone down too, but the scar on her head and all the bruises she has are going to have to fade on their own, or until I get more supplies."

Jareth gave an exhasperated sigh. He had warned the goblins time and time again to stay away from the hospital wing of the castle and never to eat anything that was in frequent use, especially important things such as healing supplies. He might as well have been talking to a brick wall. Perhaps a brick wall would have listened.

"Who cares?" the annoying red-head behind him shrieked. "Is Sarah okay?"

Jareth wished she would take her voice down a pitch or two and stop yelling. It was a rather confined corridor and hearing each other speaking was not a problem. She just did not seem to realize this, even though he had explained it to her almost three times.

"She is awake and perfectly lucid," the healer nodded. "But you must all understand this: what she just did was very traumatic for her mind as well as her body. She is a young human girl and I'm led to believe they do not take killing another in such a way lightly."

"What?" Maya demanded, and Jareth cringed. _Noise levels...I'm going to have to give her the noise levels lecture...again._ "But he tried to kill her and there was all this other crazy shit going on! Shouldn't she be happy he's dead?"

The healer shrugged.

"I am not sure. She was in considerable distress when she awoke. She allowed me to heal her, but she is still refusing pain relief."

Maya shook her head incredulously.

"Trust Sarah..." she muttered, and Jareth almost relaxed until she spoke again. "So, can we see her or not?"

The healer suddenly looked grim.

"She requests that her two friends give her some time to think." He glanced up at the Goblin King. "She insists that you stay away from her. She does not want to see you."

Jareth felt his anger bubble. Who did the silly little chit think she was? To order him to stay away in his own home?

"I am the Goblin King, and I will see her if I damn well please!" he growled, striding past the healer down the corridor.

He could hear the healer and Sarah's two friends following him, but he ignored them.

"Your majesty, I must insist-"

"Hold your tongue, healer."

"But sire-"

"Silence!"

The old man fell quiet. Jareth stopped next to the door at the end of the corridor and turned to face the three who were following him, blocking their entrance.

"All three of you will remain outside of this door until I have finished speaking to Sarah," he commanded. The red-haired girl opened her mouth to protest, and his anger fueled him on. "Unless either of you wish to spend a week in the dungeons."

He turned away from them and walked into the room.

"He has dungeons?" he heard Maya ask.

The lights were dimmed in here for comfort and the window next to Sarah's bed was wide open. She was sitting up and leaning on the sill, her chin resting in her arms as she looked up at the moon and stars in the night sky. She had kicked the sheet to the bottom of the bed and he saw that she was still wearing those ridiculous pink and blue 'comfies'.

She did not look around or even flinch as the door thudded shut behind him. She sighed as the cool breeze blew her hair back lightly. She seemed relaxed enough, but the tiniest of sniffles told him she was crying. Again.

_Always with the crying..._

He was not sure how much more crying he could take.

"I thought I told you I wasn't speaking to you," she said, her voice shaky and thick with emotion.

"You just did," he teased, and quickly regretted it. He had come in here to be serious, not mocking and condescending.

"Just leave me alone," she said quietly.

"I'm afraid you cannot order me around in my own castle, Sarah," he replied, his own voice barely above a whisper.

She sighed, her back still to him as she stared out of the window.

"Maybe you should throw me out," she mused, sounding tired. "Nøkken is dead now. You don't have to hang around me any more."

Jareth cringed, but decided not to tell her about his suspiscions. She could not deal with that too right now. He took a step towards her.

"Sarah-"

"Don't come near me!" she hissed suddenly.

He froze for a moment then shook himself. This was his castle and he would go where he damn well wanted. And that included next to Sarah. He marched towards her and placed his hand on her shoulder, pulling her away from the window. She turned her head reluctantly to face him and a lump appeared in his throat.

Her face was pale from blood loss but red blotches covered it due to her crying. The whites of her eyes were deep pink and her cheeks were coated with tears, old and new. She had been crying too long. Far too long.

She shrugged his hand off and he caught sight of the dark bruise encircling her wrist. His chest clenched. Why would she not accept pain relief?

"What do you want with me?" she asked weakly. "It's over. Just send me home."

He shook his head.

"It isn't over yet, Sarah. There may be someone else involved and it's too dangerous for you to be at home."

"I don't care!" she shrieked suddenly. "I wish-"

He quickly pressed his hand over her mouth. Her eyes went wide, demanding to know what he was doing.

"Not here, Sarah," he breathed. "Not now."

He removed his hand.

"If you won't send me home, at least have the decency to leave me alone when I ask you to!"

Jareth had never been at a loss for anything before. Now, he did not know what to say or do. _Just apologize, you fool,_ his mind screamed. _Get down on your bloody knees and tell her how sorry you are!_ He reached his hand out to caress her cheek, and a stab of pain shot through him when she jerked away.

"Don't," she said tiredly. "Please just stop. I can't deal with it right now."

He swallowed to keep his emotions at bay and let his hand fall. She turned away from him and went back to staring out of the window.

"If that is what you wish," he said in a low voice, backing away from her.

She said nothing. He turned and exited the room, ignoring the healer and Sarah's two friends as he went. He was such a fool. Why couldn't he have just apologized? Even so, it did not appear that Sarah was in a particularly forgiving mood.

He mentally berated himself from the healing wing of the castle to the study at the other side where he sat behind his desk and put his head in his hands. He was just as proud and stubborn, if not more so than Sarah was. Hoggle had probably been right. A heartfelt apology would have made everything better between them. _I'm sorry, Sarah, and this is what I'm sorry for..._ Why was that such a difficult thing to say?

He held out his hand and felt his palm burn for a moment as a crytal formed there.

"Show me Ifreann," he ordered.

Mist colleced inside the clear ball, swirling around as if a storm was raging. To his surprise, the crystal exploded. He frowned, shaking the pieces from his clothing. The other Fae was not just shielding himself from view, he was actively blocking Jareth's scrying.

He conjured another.

"Show me Edwin."

A middle-aged man with greying hair came into view. He was wearing basic Underground armour and was standing perfectly still outside a massive stone building. The prison to the North.

"Where is Ifreann?" Jareth asked.

The man jerked in surprise and looked around for the source, but found nothing. Jareth's method of communication was not unfamiliar to him though.

"Your majesty - King Jareth," he said, bowing slightly. "He was released."

Jareth clenched his jaw and fingers.

"You released him without alerting me?"

"Well, it wasn't my decision, but-"

"How long?" Jareth demanded.

"Almost a year, sire."

Almost a year...perfectly in time with Sarah meeting Nøkken masquerading as Neal. It seemed that his suspiscions were confirmed right there. He growled.

"Thank you for your time, knight."

With that, he let the crystal fade to smoke. No, maybe Ifreann had nothing to do with this. He was actively blocking Jareth from seeing him which he supposed made some kind of sense. Along with insanity on Ifreann's level came extreme paranoia. He would not want anyone, especially not the Goblin King looking in on him. And Jareth had absolutely no proof of anything. Nøkken's body had turned to water shortly after dying, leaving no traces of anything to be examined by someone who could detect magic and recognize it.

He thought back to the state the body had been in when he'd finally managed to shatter the magical barrier blocking everyone out. His nose had been completely obliterated, probably as a result of a fairly hard punch. Sarah had figured out his weakness: whatever kind of metal her kitchen utensils were made of. She had been brave, resourceful, and relentless in her attacks on him. The look in her eyes when she had plunged the blade into its heart was one of complete horror though. She had not expected that at all.

He sighed. Perhaps if he had been able to get to her earlier than he did, he could have spared her the trauma. _But what's done is done._

In the meantime, he had to find out if Ifreann was truly behind Nøkken's abilities, and if not, who was.

**Hmm...I'm kinda regretting choosing the name Ifreann now. "...to find out if Ifreann..." It's dead awkward. Anyhoo, please review :3**


	11. Chapter 10: Annoying

**I worked and I worked and then I forgot to save! But my brother is a lovely thing and managed to recover it all for me :D Thank goodness for computer geeks, eh? So this chapter being uploaded now goes to Damien, my bro :D**

She was home. The mess left behind after the fight had been cleaned and all traces of a scuffle and the death of the water demon were gone. The crack in the wall caused by Jareth was filled and painted over, looking as if it had never been cracked in the first place. Her own wounds were healed, leaving nothing but bruises. The hand marks around her neck caused by Nøkken were so faint that they were practically gone. The one on her wrist was still dark, but was fading from dark bluish-purple to brown.

She took a deep breath to relieve the nausea she felt upon glancing into the kitchen. All evidence was gone, but she could picture all the blood and flesh there in her mind's eye as if it was actually still there. Logically, she knew it was gone forever. Jareth's magic had seen to it that there would not be a single speck of anything left to remind her of it.

_Jareth..._

Sarah did not know what to think of him any longer. After asking him to leave her alone in the healing ward of his castle, he had done just that and left her to explain to Maya and Joey exactly what was going on. She'd briefly explained what Jareth had told her about Nøkken's attack on her at the age of four. Then she'd gone over what had happened in the Labyrinth and explained how Neal was really Nøkken. They'd seemed shocked but quickly took it in their stride. They were her friends after all.

But Jareth...he'd left her for several hours then at some point in the morning, he'd approached her to say he was sending her home. Just like that. No arguments, no mention of the other person involved he'd mentioned. He'd even said he would let Maya and Joey keep their memories of what they had discovered if the three of them wished it. Sarah had no problem with this: it would mean she had another two human beings to talk to about the land no one believed in. Maya thought it was "wicked cool". Joey just thought it was interesting.

Now she was home. With a wave of Jareth's disturbingly strong hands, they were at Sarah's house. She had quickly sent her friends away, wanting and needing time alone. Merlin was the only one left and he wagged his tail weakly and whined as she petted him slowly. She was sure that the mutt sensed the foreign sadness within her.

Sadness...borne of broken trust and one too many accounts of being violently marked. _"I will never hurt you. Not like he did." _Neal - Nøkken - had screamed at her; called her things to make a sailor blush. Jareth had called her a slut, spoken hurtfully to her. She supposed Jareth had not been as bad as Nøkken.

After being told no, Nøkken had tried to force her. Had pinned her down and after she'd been able to wriggle herself free, had kicked her and tried to punch her. Jareth, on the other hand, had stopped instantly when she'd asked him too and had not tried to force her. Though it was true he'd bruised her, she knew he was only stopping her from slapping him again. Jareth had also frightened her, but she'd been brave and had yelled back because somewhere in her mind, she knew he was not like Nøkken. _He is __**not**__ Nøkken. _Yes, she had been scared during their fight, but she had known he would not do any of the horrible things Nøkken had tried to do to her.

_Maybe if I'd just told him about the bruises..._

_No, Sarah. He should have apologized for breaking his word. And nearly your wrist._

Sarah did not know what to think. She wanted to trust him, but at the same time, she was afraid to. And she was furious at him for saying the things he had. She huffed as she decided she was not going to call on the Goblin King again until he decided to apologize. The jerk.

She glanced at the shaggy dog gazing up at her with his brown eyes barely peeking through his fur.

"Wanna go for a walk?" she asked him lazily. "I know I do."

At the word "walk", the dog leapt up and began to bark, jumping around wildly in excitement. She grinned and forced herself to her feet, fingering the bruise around her wrist absent-mindedly. She grabbed the brown leash from it's perch on the table next to the door and fixed it to Merlin's collar before leaving and locking the door.

The dog tugged impatiently as she leisurely made her way around the back of the house and towards the woods where he could be free to chase squirrels without worrying about leash laws. Where Sarah could be free to think without being pestered with phone calls. The only thing she had to be on the lookout for was an owl.

* * *

_Sarah was sure she could hear someone laughing. It was barely there though, so she was not entirely certain if she was imagining it or not. She spun wildly, searching for the sound while fighting a pounding headache._

_She followed the dirt path through the trees, coming closer to what was definitely laughter. She quickly froze, though. Before, it had seemed joyous. Now, it seemed somewhat...maniacal. Forced and loud. Something was very...off about the laugh._

_She glanced around the area, through the trees and bushes._

_"Hello?" she called out._

_Her answer was a mad cackle which stood the hairs on her arms and on the back of her neck on end. Her head gave a particularly sharp throb, and she clutched at it, tugging on her hair._

_"Stop!" she yelped._

_The laughing became louder. It was so close, there could have been someone right by her side. But when she whipped around, there was no one there. Where was that laughing coming from?_

_Her head was pounding so painfully that she was sent to her knees, pressing her hands tightly over her ears to try to drown out the noise causing her hurt. Why wouldn't it stop? What was so funny? Who was laughing at her?_

_She lifted her head to search for the source again and caught sight of a barn owl perched in the tree opposite her. It stared meaningfully at her with it's golden eyes._

_"I wish-"_

Sarah sat up so suddenly that she actually felt herself become dizzy. She shook it off and the anxiety that always came with any nightmare. There were voices downstairs. She frowned and glanced at the clock on her nightstand.

11:30 AM.

In a bit of a panic, she leapt to her feet, sweeping her hair from her face. She bolted into the hallway and glanced downstairs. Blonde-haired Karen was placing her handbag down on the table and tiny Toby was rushing about her feet, playing with Merlin.

Karen glanced up at her.

"_There _you are!" she said. "Are you alright?"

"I am so sorry!" Sarah muttered, hurrying down to meet her. "I've had such a busy week, I was so tired."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Karen said, shrugging it off. "We caught a cab. Have you really been alright? Has Neal been bothering you?"

Sarah's heart skipped a beat when Karen nodded down to the bruise on her wrist.

"Um, actually, Neal left yesterday. He went back where he came from. This was just an accident."

It was not technically lying, on both accounts. Nøkken was probably back in hell where he belonged and Jareth's violence had been a mistake.

"Oh, good riddance," Karen spat. "Your father will be happy to hear that."

Sarah nodded in agreement and rubbed absent-mindedly at her forehead. She could feel the throbbing beginnings of a migraine.

"Sarah!" Toby gasped. "Guess what Aunty Marge showed me? A moose!"

"A moose?"

"Yeah! It had these big horns and it looked kinda like a deer and a cow and a camel."

"That's great," she said half-heartedly, hugging her father as he came in.

"By the way," Robert said. "We told Toby you'd take him out back to walk the dog."

"When? Now?" Sarah groaned.

Her father nodded and Sarah huffed.

"At least let me get something to eat and have a shower first."

Sarah hurried. She made toast and munched on it quickly, then threw herself into the shower. Her head ached and throbbed. What had brought on such a pain? It made her want to squeeze her head between two pillows. Or two bricks.

As she rubbed shampoo into her dark locks, she massaged her head carefully. Painkillers were on the menu when she was done with her shower. She swiftly rinsed the suds from her hair and body and jumped out. She chose jeans and a plain t-shirt to wear and blow-dried her hair. She swallowed back aspirin as Toby shook Merlin's leash at her.

"You take forever to get ready!" the five-year-old complained.

"That's not that long, you know," Sarah replied.

"Sure, whatever you say. Just hurry up!"

Sarah swatted the impatient child away as she gulped more cold water down, willing the painkillers to take effect quickly. She waited a further ten minutes before braving the bright afternoon sun with a hyperactive little boy and an equally as excited dog.

Toby bounded ahead, practically being dragged by Merlin across the grass and into the trees. She sped up a little so as not to lose sight of him, following him between trees and towards the dirt path running through the woods. When she caught up with them, Toby's knees and hands were dirty from having tripped already. She rolled her eyes, but noticed why he had fallen. The dirt path led up a rather steep hill which she herself slipped on.

"We're not going to be able to get up there," she explained to Toby. "Sorry. We'll just have to take him to the park instead."

"But why?" the little blonde boy whined.

"It looks like the earth shifted," she mused. "Sorry, kid. I can't control the dirt."

Toby stomped his foot.

"I wish we could just get to the top!"

"Toby," she scolded. "You shouldn't make wishes unless you mean them. You never know who might be listening."

She glanced around, but there was no one to see and nothing was moving.

"I _do _mean it!" Toby cried, tears forming in his sky blue eyes. "Please, Sarah! Can't you try again?"

The things she did for that kid. She faced the large hill which was more like a mound of dirt than anything else. There were no roots sticking out or any plants she could use to perhaps pull herself up.

She shook her head.

"Sorry. Come on, I'll give you a piggy back to the park."

Toby only grudgingly moved around her and wrapped his arms around her neck. She grasped his legs and hauled him up onto her back. She whistled for Merlin and he hurried to her side. She began leaving the woods.

"Hey, Sarah?"

"Hm?"

"Why don't you just wish for us to be at the top?" Toby suggested innocently. "Your wishes always come true. What about your special powers?"

Sarah sighed. She had occasionally told Toby the story of the Labyrinth and he had gotten it into his head that Sarah was the girl in the story. She had never actually told him that she was that girl, he had simply figured it out for himself. He was an intelligent young boy as she had been at his age.

"Because I'm only supposed to use those wishes for really important things."

"So, I'm not important?"

Sarah laughed.

"Of course you are."

"Then make a wish!" Toby demanded.

Sarah did not falter in her gait and did not reply to her brother. Suddenly, he tugged sharply at her hair, causing her to stumble.

"Seriously, Toby, do _not _start doing that again," she warned.

"Just make a wish!" Toby yelled, tugging her hair again.

"I'm gonna drop you if you keep doing that!"

"So what?" he said. "I'm your brother and you love me, so wish for us to be at the top of the hill!"

Despite the sharp just above her ear from Toby yanking her hair sharply to the side, she laughed again. All the same, she was getting annoyed.

"Right, you've done it. Get down."

She released his legs, but she knew he would not fall. He had locked his legs and arms around her tightly, clinging on like a baby monkey.

"Pretty please, Sarah?" he begged.

Sarah sighed again and glanced down at the dog who was gazing up at her expectantly, his tail wagging. She rolled her eyes.

"I wish that the three of us could get to the top of the hill right now."

**Woo. Relatively easy chapter where emotion is concerned. Except now Sarah's gone and invited Jareth back into the picture. YAY! Anyhoo, my friend asked me why Toby and Sarah were at each other's throats and it's simply this: sure, after the Labyrinth, Sarah might have treated him better but he's still a spoiled little 5 year old. Pulling hair is not beneath him, as I know from experience :P Please review :3**


	12. Chapter 11: Forgiveness

**We've arrived at chapter 11 :D That's like...two 1's in a row man. ANYWAY, this one is being uploaded because I did little to nothing today EXCEPT for writing this chapter. GO me.**

The owl flew in front of them from nowhere. There was a tense moment in which absolutely nothing happened and Sarah feared that Toby would have a temper tantrum at any moment. Then the barn owl came. As if from the sun itself. Sarah glared at it as it circled them once. Then it landed on the ground before them, and in a puff of glitter, it was no longer an owl, but a man.

Jareth looked somewhat apprehensive. She knew that he was bound by any wish made by her and so he had little to no choice in the matter, but she wanted one thing to be absolutely clear.

"I'm doing this for Toby," she said, her voice relatively cold.

Jareth merely stared at her for a moment, his face devoid of all emotion. Then something flickered behind his mismatched eyes and he seemed more human.

"Of course," he muttered.

He suddenly disappeared and rematerialized atop the giant mound of dirt, holding his hand out. She huffed. Couldn't he just poof them up there? _Obviously, no. _He wanted to be difficult and arrogant as usual.

Toby suddenly leapt from her back and excitedly rushed up to the Goblin King, beaming.

"I remember you!" he exclaimed.

"You do?" both Sarah and Jareth answered.

Toby glanced between them rapidly, excited.

"Yeah!" Toby suddenly adopted some kind of singing voice, though it was less than tuneful. "_Dance magic, dance_!"

Sarah's eyes flitted to the Goblin King for an explanation to discover he looked somewhat embarrassed. He glanced down at her in return.

"The power of music, as you well know, is extremely potent," he explained. "It only makes sense that he would remember me through it."

"Right..." she replied, wondering what kind of a song he had thought would be appropriate to sing to her little brother.

"So, to the top of the hill, is it?"

Toby nodded enthusiastically. Jareth extended his hand to the boy.

"Wait a second," Sarah interrupted. "There are no...repercussions to this, are there?"

"Certainly not. When have there ever been where your wishes are concerned?"

Sarah chose not to mention her wishing away of Toby four years ago. She simply watched as Toby grasped Jareth's gloved hand and was pulled up the hill. Merlin followed and Jareth gripped him by the collar to haul him up. Sarah was left standing with her arms crossed uncertainly.

Toby motioned for her to join them.

"Come on, Sarah!"

She did not move.

"Come now, Sarah, don't be childish," Jareth said. "You are doing this for Toby, remember."

Sarah fought the urge to stick her tongue out at him. She grudgingly reached up for him. His fingers tightened around her hand and she saw a flash of pain in his eyes. She'd seen it whilst sitting in the hospital bed in his castle too. Her eyes followed his to the dark blemish around her wrist.

She shrugged it off along with his hand when she was at the top. Immediately, Toby ran off, followed closely by Merlin. Within seconds, they were both gone through the trees.

"Toby, don't go too far!" she called after him.

"Let him be," Jareth said lightly. "He's a young boy with an adventurous streak."

"But he could get seriously hurt!"

"Do you honestly think I would allow that?"

"Well, no. But-"

"Then calm yourself and listen to me."

She turned back to face him, wondering what he was talking about. He seemed nervous. He took her right hand in his own with a hold so gentle, she was not sure he was touching her at all. Without warning, he dropped to his knees. Taken aback, she opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off.

"Sarah...everything I said to you before: I meant none of it. When I shouted at you and called you a whore, I was angry. I did not mean it. I told you that you would not reject me a third time, but in reality, you may reject me as many times as you wish, and I will always come back. Sarah-" He paused, as if saying the words aloud seemed somehow dangerous. "Sarah, you are so much more to me than I could ever truly tell you. I broke the promise I made to you. I hurt you, and in more ways than one. I do not expect you to trust me any more, but I hope you will forgive me." He trailed his fingers gently over the bruise around her wrist. "Nothing like this will ever happen again. I would sooner die than let the foolishness that hurt you take control of me again. I spent so much time moping and feeling sorry for myself that I neglected to apologize to you. I am so, so sorry, Sarah. Please forgive me."

At some point during the speech, Jareth's head had fallen forwards so that he was no longer look at her, but at the forest floor.

Something wet was trickling down Sarah's cheek. She raised her hand to brush it away, and was not surprised to discover it was a tear. There was a very painful lump in her throat and she could not swallow it down. Her hand was shaking.

An odd mixture of an intense weight and feather-lightness rested on her chest, making her heart beat harder and faster. She was...touched. Deeply moved. The look in his eyes, the way he hung his head...did he really consider himself so low for causing her skin accidental damage?

She pulled her hand gently from his and took his face between her own. She lifted his head slowly so that he was facing her, and she closed her eyes. She bent at the waist and captured his lips with her own for the briefest of moments. She felt his eyelashes tickle her skin as he closed his eyes.

"Of course I forgive you," she whispered against him.

A gasp of surprise escaped her lips when he suddenly wrapped his arms around her, gripping her fiercely. She crouched between his knees for comfort and noticed with something of a start that Jareth was crying. Not sobbing hysterically, but shaking slightly, and tears were falling slowly from his eyes.

Sarah's heart fluttered. The Goblin King, immortal Fae, was shedding tears for her. Was on his knees begging for the forgiveness he so desperately craved in order to move on.

"Jareth...don't. Don't do that," she said softly. "Please. It's...weird."

"Sarah, you are an angel trapped in a human body," he said weakly. "I don't-"

"Don't say you don't deserve my forgiveness," she chastised. "Besides...I should be the one asking for yours."

He pulled back and frowned down at her. He was strangely breathtaking with Fae tears coating his face. They seemed to shimmer in the sunlight, making him glow. As if they contained their own magic.

Sarah took a deep breath to ready herself for the beratement she knew she deserved.

"When I told you to stop...it wasn't because I didn't want to," she said truthfully. "It was just that..." She paused for a moment. "Well, you remember how Nøkken cornered me that day I went out? And I said that he..."

Jareth nodded stiffly.

"There were - are bruises," she explained, hesitating due to shame and discomfort. "They don't hurt, but I just didn't want you to see. I was..."

"Embarrassed?" he supplied.

She nodded. His hand found her chin and tilted her head up. His gaze was fierce.

"Don't ever be ashamed of something that was not your fault," he scolded softly. "Did you think I would laugh at you?"

"I don't know...maybe."

Jareth's mouth opened to speak, but they were interrupted by a loud sound from Toby.

"Ew!" he squealed. "Get a room, you two!"

Sarah jumped away from Jareth, turning to stare at her little brother. He had twigs and leaves in his hair as did Merlin. What on earth had they been doing? Jareth held out his hand and helped her to her feet as she frowned down at her brother who offered no explanation as to why he was in such a state. He simply ran off again with the dog close by his heels.

Sarah began to follow the two, and Jareth fell into step beside her.

"Is everything alright?" he asked her.

"Kind of," she replied instantly. "I can't stop thinking about how I...killed him."

"You did the right thing," Jareth reassured. "If you had not done it, I would have."

"But-"

"Not another word," he commanded. "Do not forget that it was a demon, Sarah. It felt no human emotions. It killed hundreds before it set its sights on you, mostly young and innocent children. It tried to kill you several times, it marked you, and let us not forget what else it tried to do to you."

Sarah shivered thinking about it, but decided that he was correct. She had practically done the world a service by ridding it of Nøkken once and for all. What was a little trauma so long as the children of the world were safe from one more monster? Absolutely nothing.

She sat down on the floor which was covered in dirt and twigs to watch Toby play fetch with Merlin, who continued to be confused when the stick disappeared into the masses of other stick littering the ground. _Whatever happened to a dog's sense of smell?_

Something behind her moved and she felt the heat of Jareth's chest pressing against her back. His legs came up at her sides and he pulled her back against him, his arms coiled gently around her waist. She let herself relax in his hold, leaning on him as Toby rushed around with the dog. It was idyllic, for a moment. Sarah did not speak the words aloud, but she wished moments like this could last forever.

**Aww :3 Another relatively calm chapter, except from that big emotional apology. I too am glad Jareth finally decided to swallow his pride and say sorry :P Review now...GO :P**


	13. Chapter 12: Sickness

**Henceforth, the action picks up again. You know, I'm not even sure what henceforth means so I'm probably using it out of context. That's what I get for being French ^^' (- lame attempt at excuse for failed vocabulary). **

"Are you sure?" Karen asked as Sarah got to her feet. "You slept late and it's barely eight thirty."

"Yeah," she muttered back. "I feel like my head's going to split."

"Have you taken painkillers?" her father asked, his gaze flicking from the TV to Sarah.

"More than I should have," she admitted. "I'll be fine when I wake up."

She bade them all goodnight and hugged Toby, whispering her third warning about not telling his parents about the magical man who suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the woods. Then she trudged her way upstairs and into her room. The sound of the door clicking shut made her head pound again.

Not bothering to turn the light on, she flopped down onto the bed face-first. What was causing such a migraine? She had never experienced a pain quite like it. As if her head was exploding yet her skull was collapsing. She was certain she could actually see little stars in the corners of her eyes. She squeezed her eyes shut against it.

She knew she could call Jareth to relieve the pain, but she did not want to distract him. He was busy finding out who else was supposed to be involved in Nøkken's plan to kill her. Too tired to think about that complicated matter, she dragged herself up the bed and managed to lie down the correct way: head on the pillow, feet at the foot, blankets covering her. Head still giving sharp twinges of intense pain, she covered her eyes with her arms against what faint light was making its way into the room.

* * *

Sarah's eyes flew open, but the dream was forgotten. She sat up warily, shielding her eyes against the morning sun seeping in through her window. She kicked the twisted blankets off her. The long t-shirt she had worn to bed was clinging to her with cold, clammy sweat. Her hair was mussed and tangled. She glanced at herself in the mirror and started.

Her face was not just pale, but it appeared devoid of any colour whatsoever. It was a pasty shade of grey, and dark circles under her eyes made them look sunken and hollow. A sheen of perspiration glistened over her cheeks and forehead. She was shaking.

The intense headache still lingered, but it was barely there as if only just clinging to the nerves. She got to her feet and a wave of dizziness and nausea overtook her, causing her to sit down again. She fanned herself with her hand pointlessly, trying to cool herself down. What had happened to make her feel so unwell? Something she had eaten perhaps?

She tried again to get to her feet and managed to make it to the window this time. She threw it open and a blissfully cool breeze greeted her. Her heated and sensitive skin felt somewhat better for a tiny moment, then she faltered, getting dizzy again. She made it back to her bed and curled up, closing her eyes. She could not ever remember feeling this sick in her life.

A gentle knock on her door did not disturb her.

"Sarah, are you up?" Karen called.

"Mm-hm," was all she could manage.

The white painted door swung open gently and Karen swept in, fully dressed and made-up. She glanced down at Sarah and her casual smile turned to a frown of concern for her step-daughter.

"You look half-dead!" she exclaimed.

"I feel it," Sarah groaned, letting her eyes flutter closed again.

She felt Karen's cool hand on her forehead. The woman withdrew quickly to avoid the sweat and heat.

"My God, Sarah, you're burning up!" she informed. "I'll bring you some water and a cold compress."

Sarah felt her presence leave. She could hear voices dowstairs but could not work out which voice belonged to who or even what they were saying. Within a few painful minutes, Karen was back. She felt something icy cold pressed against her forehead and she gasped in relief. She heard the dull thud of a glass being placed on her wooden nightstand.

Karen's hands were on her arms, trying to be soothing. In reality, it made Sarah's skin burn and crawl more than it already was. She did not shrug her step-mother off, though. She knew she was trying to be the comforting and helpful mother.

"Your father, Toby, and I were planning to go shopping, but we could stay, if you're feeling that bad," she offered.

"No," Sarah insisted. "You guys go. I'll be fine. I'll just go back to sleep."

"If you're sure."

Sarah had not the energy to give a verbal reply, but she managed to jerk her head in what was supposed to be a nod. Karen patted her arm and she felt a thin blanket draped over her legs. The door clicked shut. Sarah forced herself to listen until she heard her family leave and the car zoom off.

She felt herself drifting in and out of consciousness, confusing her dreams with the reality that was so painful at the moment. At some point, she had forced herself out of bed and into the bathroom to vomit. Now she lay on the cold, tiled floor, her body curling around the toilet. She did not have the energy to lift herself off the floor, and she feared that if she did get back to bed, she would not be able to get back to the bathroom.

Clad in only that t-shirt that reached her mid-thigh and a pair of panties, the tiles were like ice against her bare legs. She had hoped that it would be a pleasant kind of chill that soothed her, but she found it was harsh and almost as unforgiving as the burning.

She was hungry, she knew, but eating would only elicit more puking, and her muscles were already sore and stiff from heaving and retching. She tried to push herself up off the floor, but her arms trembled violently and she let herself rest on the tiles again.

Internally, she laughed.

_I can't move. This is so cliché._

She had told herself she would leave him out of this as he was busy, but she certainly did not want her family coming back to find her huddled around the toilet like some kind of zombie. She summoned what little strength she felt she had left and opened her mouth.

"Jareth..."

He was there. Her eyes were closed and he made little to no noise at all, but she sensed him there, standing behind her. He sighed lightly.

Without a word, his arms curled under her and lifted her from the freezing floor. She felt him moving, but she did not open her eyes.

"Turn the light off," she moaned.

Jareth chuckled lightly.

"You want me to get rid of the sun? I can move the stars for you, precious, but not that one."

The light shining through her closed lids dimmed slightly as Jareth entered her bedroom. She felt herself be lowered onto the bed, and Jareth found the cold compress, laying it over her eyes delicately. She felt his bare fingers trailing lightly over her legs, then her arms, and eventually her face. His hands pushed her hair out of the way and his thumbs found her temples.

"Migraine?" he asked.

"The worst," she managed. "And my skin is burning."

A strange numbness filled her head for a moment, making every uncomfortable sensation of pain running through her body cease. In an instant, however, it was all back.

"It didn't work?"

Sarah shook her head.

"Strange..."

There was silence for a few moments.

"Roll onto your front, Sarah."

She complied, but Jareth helped her to lie on her stomach comfortably. He moved the cloth, damp with cold water, from her head to the back of her neck, sweeping her hair off to the side as he did. Vaguely wondering what he was doing when she felt the t-shirt slide up her back, exposing it. It did not cool her down at all, and she did not protest. She was wearing underwear, after all.

His hands spread flat touched her back.

"Are your muscles tense?"

"Mm-hm."

His palms dug into her skin and muscles, pushing upwards towards her shoulder blades. There, he circled around them and slid his hands back down over her waist. Where his hands travelled, she felt an odd tingling sensation. It was not uncomfortable and it was certainly much better than the pain. The almost prickly feeling of it told her it was magic.

His hands stopped to rest on her flattened shoulder blades and his thumbs travelled in circles at the centre of them. His touch burned her skin, and not in a pleasant way, but his magic was working its way into her sore muscles, relaxing her. For that, she could handle the minor discomfort.

She sighed contentedly, but wavered as another wave of nausea rolled through her. It did not go unnoticed by Jareth. He paused in his massaging for a moment, then began again. She was not sure how long he continued his relaxing ministrations, but when he was done, he rolled her over gently and laid her head in his lap. His fingers began combing slowly through her hair, his nails barely skimming her scalp. Another incredibly comforting motion.

"Have you been drinking enough water today?"

"I had a sip earlier before I was sick."

"You must drink more than that. You're not well, you could become dehydrated."

"I'm sick, not stupid," she muttered, annoyed.

"Sit up."

He helped her to do so and she leaned heavily against him. Her arm was shaky as she reached out for the glass of water on the nightstand, but Jareth caught her hand and pulled it back. Sarah frowned.

"This bruise, it should be fading, not getting bigger."

Sarah tapped it lightly and was surprised by how much it hurt. It was indeed bigger and had returned to the blackish-blue colour it had originally been. She could not have gotten _that _sick in little over a day, could she?

"When did this begin?" Jareth asked, and she assumed he was talking about her illness.

"Yesterday morning," she said, her voiced hushed. "I had a nightmare and I woke up with a headache. I took painkillers as often as I could, but it didn't help. I think I had another nightmare last night, but I don't remember it. I woke up feeling like this. I think it was something I ate."

"No," Jareth said softly. He released her hand and let her reach out for the glass of water. She forced herself to take several slow sips, despite its unappeal to her thirst. "Something as simple as food poisoning would be easily taken care of by my magic. This is something else..."

He was quiet for a moment in deep thought, and she only forced more water down. She knew the risks of being dehydrated as well as sick and sweaty.

"Indulge me a moment, Sarah."

He removed the glass from her hand and placed it out of reach. His body was gone from behind hers and he moved her so that she was lying flat on her back. He pushed her hair from her face again and she saw him lean over her.

She felt his forefingers pressing uncomfortably at her temples.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to search your body for foreign magic," he explained. His words startled her.

"You think someone did this to me on purpose?"

"We will see. Close your eyes, Sarah, and relax. This may be slightly uncomfortable."

Sarah could not possibly imagine feeling slight discomfort over the sharp pain in her head. But she did as he said and closed her eyes, trying to will herself to relax her muscles and her brain.

There was the odd sensation of pins and needles inside her. It started in her head and in an instant had shot around almost every nerve in her body. It made her jerk in surprise.

"Anything?"

"There is magic there, and I have my suspiscions about whom it belongs to, but nothing is certain," he explained. "There would have to be tests done to confirm anything."

"Who?" she managed to spit out, strangely breathless.

"An old enemy," he said vaguely. "But I am placing no blame for now. Sarah, it is vital that you come back to the Underground with me. I may be able to reduce the effects of whatever spell this is and we can perform tests which will determine the true cause of this."

"But Toby, my-"

"Nothing another simple spell can't fix," he said slowly. "It will make them think you are out of town visiting a friend."

"Okay then..." she whispered. "But what about my actual friends? You can make them think that too, right?"

"If you don't want them to find out or worry."

"Mm-hm."

She was losing to sleep again. Some kind of bodily fatigue caused by her sickness. Once more, she felt Jareth's arms under her, lifting her with ease into the air. Once more, her world went black.

**Sarah's gonna have to stop passing out. I know, I'm the writer and all, but seriously. It even annoys me XD. Please review :3 BTW, I have a busy night and a busy day tomorrow so no updates for the next couple of days. I suppose it gives you all a break.**


	14. Chapter 13: History

**Unlucky thirteen...uh ohes D: I kinda like this chapter, especially the start. Lots of talking, but I promise the majority of it's important.**

"Oh, don't be such a baby," Sarah dared.

Jareth rubbed his forehead at her insolence, but chose not to respond. He was just glad she had enough energy to sit up and talk now.

After bringing her to the infirmary and explaining his view to the healer, he had placed her down on the bed. The healer had worked for near two hours, giving her different liquid medicines to swallow to relieve the headache she complained of and to prevent her vomiting. The goblins had eaten the medicine for cooling down body temperature so she was still somewhat on the sweaty side but that hardly bothered Jareth, and she was no longer worrying about it.

She had complained that her skin was burning and that the blankets were too rough. This had aroused concern in both he and the healer as the sheets were the softest he had. They were also mildy worried about her vision occasionally blurring, but she had assured them it was hardly noticeable. She had been given a small blue pill to swallow which dimmed down her sense of touch, and she was no longer complaining about the heat.

Now, Jareth felt sick. He simply could not understand why anyone in their right mind would invent such a device. Surely there were better, less disturbing and less painful ways to extract blood?

"I seriously cannot believe that the Goblin King is afraid of needles," Sarah giggled.

"I am not _afraid _of them," he affirmed. "I think they are disgusting and pointless. Why would anyone want to push a long metal pin into their own veins?"

"Crude but effective for their purpose," the healer reminded him.

Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Come on, they're not that bad," she argued. "We use them all the time back home."

"A fact I am well aware of," he muttered, turning away from the blasted thing as the healer prepared to stab Sarah's arm with it. "That does not mean I have to like the idea."

"You're being a baby," she reminded him again.

"I am not," he argued. "The very idea of that thing you call a needle going into your veins and drawing out your blood is disturbing, to say the least. Surely there is a less painful way of doing this?"

He heard Sarah laugh, but did not dare turn around to glare at her, lest he should catch sight of the damnable needle.

"Jareth, I don't know what you've been reading, but I'll barely feel a thing. Especially with all this medicine in me making me numb."

He grumbled at her, but still did not turn to face her. He waited for several seconds until he sensed more movement and Sarah spoke.

"You can look now," she laughed. "It's done."

He turned slowly to see the healer dabbing a spot of some ointment over the tiny red dot in the crease of her arm. It immediately disappeared. Jareth let out a breath he had not been aware he was holding, and the feeling of nausea disappeared when the healer turned away from them with the vial of blood.

The elderly man hurried away through a door which slammed shut behind him.

"Where is he going?"

"His office. He has to study what he finds in the blood before we'll know how to get rid of the magic making you ill."

"But, all the medicine - I feel fine now."

"It's only temporary."

Sarah lapsed into silence, picking at her fingernails absently. After a few moments, Sarah shifted to look up at him.

"So, earlier I was too out of it to really understand what you were saying. But I remember you said something about an enemy," she said, apparently choosing her words carefully.

He met her eyes briefly and the look told him she wanted more information. He could hardly begrudge her that now that she was lucid.

"I will say this before I tell you about him: we do not know for sure if he is involved. It's all guesswork at this point." She nodded and he went on. "His name is Ifreann. A Fae not much younger than myself. We were friends in the early days of my ruling over the Goblin Kingdom and the Labyrinth, but something happened. I still can't recall exactly what, but I know we fought about it."

"So...you guys fell out and now he's getting all pissy and bent on revenge? That's-"

"Not quite it, Sarah," he interrupted. "The thing about Ifreann is that he's always been somewhat..." Jareth paused for a moment, trying to find a polite word to describe his mental state. "...unstable. When we were friends, he was rather neurotic. He obsessed over odd little things and developed unhealthy fascinations with things most would not normally be interested in."

"Like what?" she asked, her voice small.

"It's better if you don't know," he whispered back, a rare shiver running through him as he thought of Ifreann's obsessions. "He was also quite paranoid. He seemed to think that most of the Underground was plotting against him, although I cannot see why. His trust in many began to waver and he did eventually cut himself off from most he knew.

"It began to get worse after that. He started to have what I can only describe as childish temper tantrums. Instead of simply panicking and becoming upset if things weren't done to his specifications, he became hysterical. Violent and angry. But then sometimes, he was completely docile and calm. Pleasant, even. It got to such a stage that even having a casual conversation about the weather could turn into a physical fight.

"I tried to remain his friend, but it was proving difficult. It seemed that his insanity was opening up a darker side of him that we were not aware existed. Dark tendencies coupled with his ill mental state and power were dangerous, as you can imagine. He killed two Fae, and several other creatures. With one Fae, it was a spur of the moment action that caused the death and he seemed to regret it. But with the second, he was careful and sly about it. The actual cause of death was never determined, but there was plenty of Ifreann's magic inside and out of the body for us to be able to tell it was him.

"It was shortly after that, that he began becoming violent towards me. As I said, I do not know what caused it, but suddenly I was his worst enemy instead of his closest friend. He held a severe grudge against me and constantly talked about revenge."

He stopped talking for a minute to regain his breath and the tiny sliver of composure he'd lost while explaining this to Sarah.

"Wasn't there anything you could do?" she asked, her voice oddly thick. "Like, a spell or something?"

"Nothing," Jareth said, shaking his head. "All Fae have a little cruelty and darkness in them, Sarah, as do humans. And even by human standards, Ifreann is insane, psychotic. Human medications don't work on Fae bodies and he constantly put up shields around himself so that no one could use magic on him.

"The Fae are not subject to such a mental decline. We do not have special hospitals or asylums to rehabilitate ourselves. So he was incarcerated. He was there for the better part of fifty years. Not long ago, he was released without my knowledge."

Sarah looked somewhat confused for a moment. He went on.

"Obviously, I have reason to believe he is involved, and was also the one who supplied Nøkken with his abilities. A few days ago, I spoke to the guard outside the prison to the North of the Underground. He told me that Ifreann was released almost a year ago, which matches your meeting of Nøkken."

She was quiet, deep in thought.

"So...you think that Ifreann gave powers to Nøkken just to try to hurt me?"

"And I," Jareth explained. "I believe that Nøkken sought Ifreann out for the sole purpose of killing you like he was supposed to when you were a child. When Ifreann learned of my involvement, he must have found out about our history and my feelings for you, and so provided Nøkken with the tools necessary to lure you into a trap and kill you."

"Because they both knew it would hurt you," she muttered.

"Yes," he nodded. "They may have been waiting for you to call me back into your life, and when you did not, Nøkken began to get violent. When you still did not call me, that is when he tried to drown you. He allowed you the oppurtunity to call me, but did not expect me to banish him again, so he could not take your life."

They were silent again, this time for several minutes. Jareth allowed her the time to mull it over, but she was speaking again.

"And now that Nøkken is out of the picture...you expect Ifreann to attack directly?"

Jareth gave a humourless laugh.

"I don't expect him to, I know he will. I just do not know when. But like I said, we cannot be sure if he is involved or not."

"How long until the healer is finished?"

"Soon."

He glanced down at her. She did not look frightened or nervous as he had expected her to. On the contrary, she looked quite thoughtful. He allowed the quietude to carry. She probably needed time to think about everything he had just told her.

He sat himself down in the chair next to the bed she rested in, feeling suddenly very drained. He craved sleep and answers, but he knew that studying Sarah's blood could not be rushed in case something was missed.

He watched her intently. Her skin was too pale and looked damp and clammy with sweat. The grey circles under her eyes made her look half-dead. Her limbs were shaky and her breaths seemed oddly shallow. He was at least thankful that the healer's medicine worked and she was able to speak and move now.

She was startled when the door to the healer's office opened. The man hobbled up to them, a small glass jar in his hands.

"I was able to identify the spell used. It causes severe headaches, vomiting, dizziness and fevers. It also thins the blood and makes your skin more sensitive to everything, which explains why your bruise is getting bigger instead of fading. It can also cause blindness, brittle bones, and overall bodily degradation. If left untreated, your organs would slowly fail and eventually you would die."

"But...you _can _treat it, right?" Sarah asked, voicing exactly what Jareth was thinking.

"Of course I can," the healer affirmed, nodding. "Your majesty, after she's healed, I would highly recommend some mild protection spells to ward off any more magic someone might be tempted to use against her."

"And who does the magic belong to?"

"I cannot tell myself, but I've managed to solidify it and contain it in here," the healer explained, holding up the jar. "You may be able to find out who it belongs to."

Jareth took the jar from the man carefully and peered through it at the small amount of what appeared to be glitter resting on the bottom. It glowed a faint green and he immediately knew. As if the tiny amount of magic was projecting the image of the Fae it belonged to straight into his mind's eye.

He glanced down at Sarah and nodded.

"Ifreann."

**It amuses me to think of Jareth as being grossed out by needles. I myself am one of the lucky ones. Grossed out by everything BUT I'm not afraid of needles. Go me :3 Please review, and y'all can tell me if you're afraid of needles.**


	15. Chapter 14: Day and Night

**Chapter 14! :D HOORAY :3 I had a bit of trouble with this chapter. I had it all planned, but after the last chapter, I discovered there was this chunk I had NOT planned...but it turned out kind of okay...if you ignore that the main action of this chapter happens so suddenly.**

The healer had warned them both that Sarah might be unsteady on her feet for anything between a couple of hours to a couple of days. He had said that the medicine needed time to circulate fully to restore her health. Sarah seemed to think that this was rubbish. After trying to stand, she had quickly stumbled backwards and sat herself down on the bed again.

The healer had assured them that there was no need for Sarah to remain in the infirmary, that the medicine would do its job. So Jareth had helped her to walk from the healing ward to a lavish guest room he had prepared. She had been impressed with it and had thanked him.

He had left her alone for almost an hour to allow her to bathe, brush her teeth and get dressed. Now, she gripped his arm tightly as he led her around the gardens, the bright sun beaming down on them. He had bespelled the wardrobe in her room so that all of her Aboveground clothes were there for her choosing: he suspected she would be more comfortable in them.

Jareth rather enjoyed the feel of Sarah's arms interlaced in the crease of his elbow as she leaned on him for support. It would have been perfect if they did not have to worry about Ifreann.

"Oh, wow!" Sarah exclaimed, shaking him from his stupor. "You have butterflies?"

Jareth followed her gaze to a massive butterfly bush and he watched the graceful creatures flutter around the flowers. They were indeed butterflies, but they were certainly not like her Aboveground ones. These were slightly larger and they changed colour frequently.

"This surprises you?" he asked.

"Well, yeah. I always thought that the Underground had all the creatures we think of as mythical and nothing else."

"Far from it," he explained. "We do have creatures from your world, but the magic here alters them. For example, a simple horse becomes a unicorn-"

"Seriously?" she squealed, her eyes brightening significantly with child-like wonderment. "Unicorns? I would have had a ball here as a kid! What else?"

Jareth chuckled at her child-like excitement.

"Reindeer learn to fly," he laughed.

"You must be joking!" she giggled. "So what about Santa?"

"Nothing more than a human myth derived from the story of Saint Nicholas," he dismissed. "Although I'm sure there is a Fae in the North who has some creatures in his kingdom make and deliver toys to children."

She did not look disappointed, but she laughed again. He felt rather content too. It had been far too long since she'd ever been this happy, or even laughed.

"Maybe I should spend more time here. Explore the land, and all that. It'd be nice to be here without worrying for my life or running through a scary Labyrinth."

"You thought it was scary?"

"Well, I fell down a dark hole with all these hands that could _talk_. And there were the Cleaners," she reminded him. Her tone was playful though. "Then there were those weird bird things - the fire gang? - who tried to rip my head off. And that giant robot thing. I did have fun, though. I made friends."

She trailed off into silence, observing the giant flowers as they passed them. A sudden idea hit him, and he smirked, realizing it would get him into her proverbial good books.

"If you wanted, Sarah, I could arrange for you to meet them here. Perhaps tomorrow."

She turned and looked up at him, her eyes bright.

"Really?"

"I don't see why not," he reasoned. "How long has it been since you spoke to them?"

"Almost a year," she admitted. "When I turned eighteen, my life got so busy and I just never found the time..."

"I'm sure they'll be very understanding. Hoghead is aware of our situation and he's likely already told the other two."

"Great," she whispered. "Thank you."

He leaned down slightly, pressing a kiss against her forehead.

"Anything for you, precious."

* * *

Jareth was not so sure how they had gotten to this, but he was not about to complain about it. He wore his grey breeches only and her small hands pressed against his bare chest, her nails scratching lightly. She was clad in only her white bra and panties. Even in the basic underwear, she was a goddess.

Her legs were smooth and pale, not a blemish on them. Her feet were shapely and dainty. Her small waist curved perfectly and her flat stomach reflected the moonlight outside. He trailed kisses from her slim ankles to her upper thigh, stopping just inches from her womanhood. She shivered when he placed a light kiss on it through her thin cotton panties.

His mouth travelled to the waistband of her underwear, and he flicked his tongue upwards, tracing the small indent between her stomach muscles. His tongue dipped briefly into her navel and continued upwards towards her bra. He savoured the smooth sweetness of her skin. He worshipped every second he spent touching and caressing her; every second she allowed him to continue. He wanted to show her that she was a goddess in his eyes.

He leaned up and captured her lips with his own, sucking gently. She moaned, her arms going around his neck. Goosebumps were raised on his neck as she laced her fingers through his hair. He snaked his arm around her and pushed her down slowly. She writhed with pleasure under him as he moved his lips from her to her earlobe, his teeth nipping at it. His lips made their way to her jaw and down her neck, coming to rest just between her breasts. Her back arched into him when he flicked his tongue teasingly across the skin there.

Jareth sat up slowly, and he noticed the pained look in Sarah's eyes. He smirked, glad that she still craved his touch. He moved back from her, pulling her up with him, and he rested on his knees. He lifted her slightly so that she was sitting on him, her legs at either side of his.

He took her right hand and lifted it, one arm still around her so that she did not fall. His lips traced the bruise encircling her wrist, and he felt them burn. Sarah gasped too. They both watched the bruise shrink until it was completely gone, not a trace of the hurt he'd placed on her left.

He reached around her for the clasp of the bra and unfastened it, pulling it from her. There was a brief moment in which Sarah's arms flew up to cover herself, but he took her hands and removed them, gentle and slow.

"Never hide yourself from me," he scolded, his voice barely above a whisper. "You are so beautiful, perfect."

"So are you," she laughed, trailing her fingers down his chest, eliciting another shiver from him.

Jareth studied the bruises on her breasts. Yellowing hand marks which made him growl lowly. He brought his head down and his mouth met the curve at the side of her breast. His tongue pushed against her skin, and suddenly his mouth burned. Within seconds, it was over, and the bruise was gone. He turned his attention to the other breast and performed the same action, removing the bruise from there too.

His tongue moved up to her taut nipple, flicking over it. She jerked and gasped as he took it into his mouth and sucked gently, swirling his tongue around it and over the tip.

Sarah's arms gripped him tightly.

"Jareth," she hissed.

He licked his way from her nipple to her neck, and bit down, sucking here too. She hissed again and he pulled back after a few minutes to observe the red mark he had left. This kind of mark was acceptable.

Pushing her back down onto the bed again, he hooked his fingers into her underwear and pulled them off. She was truly gorgeous. He leaned down and dipped his tongue between the dark curls that protected her from view and was almost surprised to discover that she was almost ready for him.

He licked upwards and she gasped again, uttering a small phrase which he did not catch. He was far too busy reveling in her taste, relishing in the weak mewls escaping her lips. He brought himself up and kissed the corner of her mouth, placing his index finger at her entrance.

She suddenly took a hold of his hand, her grip gentle but restraining. He paused.

"Jareth, I've never - not with anyone-"

He kissed her, letting her know that he understood. With that, he slipped his finger inside her. She tensed, clenching around him and whispering a small gasp of discomfort. He waited until she relaxed and gave him a small nod before thrusting his digit into her again. He curled his finger forwards, and she bucked suddenly.

Sarah looked down, embarrassed. He laughed and cupped her cheek with his free hand, bringing her head around. He captured her lips again, and continued his ministrations on her, adding a further two fingers until he felt her on the brink of her release: her first. He himself was painfully hard. He was not sure how much longer he could prepare her for this.

He removed his fingers, and she helped him remove his breeches, her face burning bright with embarrassment and passion. He used his knee to pry her legs apart wider, being as gentle as he could. He positioned his hardened self at her entrance.

His eyes met hers. She was burning in every way.

"Sarah, I cannot guarantee that this won't hurt."

"It doesn't matter," she breathed. "I trust you. I want you."

"And I you."

* * *

Sarah sighed contentedly in her sleep, wriggling backwards as if trying to get even closer to him. He smiled lazily, tightening his arms around her waist. Their naked bodies were curled together, her back moulding perfectly to his front. His nose was nestled into her hair and he inhaled her mouth-watering scent. He bent his neck to kiss her bare shoulder reverently, but she was deeply asleep.

She was tired, and he understood why. She was still recovering from the spell cast on her to make her ill and weak. It was probably not the best time for the to have slept together. He inhaled the scent of her hair again, and it seemed to cast a spell of its own on him. If he could have stayed like this forever, he would have, but even then it would not be enough. Forever was not long at all. Not long enough.

He sighed, closing his eyes and relaxed himself, falling into a peaceful slumber with Sarah Williams - his Sarah, his precious thing - finally in his arms.

**Yes...there was sex. But because I don't wanna get banned, I'm not going into detail. Use your imaginations (here's a clue, it was awesome) :D I did try to put as much as I thought I could get away with, though. According to the ratings, M is supposed to be for 16 and up. I feel that 16 year olds can handle what I included. If not...sadness :( Please review :D Also, I've never attempted to write anything like that before, so if it was a little sucky, that's because I've yet to practise writing it.**


	16. Chapter 15: Lunacy And Other Things

**Hm, I just realized that the last chapter was kinda short. NEVER MIND...some action now :3 Like, less sexy action.**

**REVIEW REPLY TO a norse girl: Thanks for your super long review, I only wish you'd logged in so I could reply to you personally XD. I did know that ****Nøkken's name was different in English, I just didn't know that's what it was XD. I kinda like the special letter 'o' with the line through it though :D All the stuff that you said I DID know, lol. I read about 6 articles on this creature before I wrote about him, but I think some of my sources may be wrong as they are all a little different.  
Anyhoo, thanks again for your super-long review. I enjoyed reading about Nøkken from someone who is actually Norse :D**

Sarah's shoulders burned and ached. She could not understand why. The air around her was sharp and cold, nipping at her skin. She was not bare as she remembered, but covered with some kind of thin material. Her head was pounding again, and she groaned.

She opened her eyes, blinking. Her vision was blurry at first, but the more she blinked, the clearer it became. Her mind registered that there was something seriously wrong with what she was seeing, but she could not make her body move. The walls that she could see were made of rough-looking stone. There was no window or door, but there was some faint light in the room, though she could not tell where it was coming from.

After several minutes, she managed to sit up. She glanced at the semi-soft surface she was lying on and discovered it to be a very basic wooden bed. The mattress was thin, and so was the pillow. The blanket was itchy and grey. She kicked it off wildly, looking at what she was wearing. Cotton shorts and a t-shirt. She could not remember putting them on.

Trying not to panic, her eyes raked over the room again. Next to the bed was a small wooden table with a large candle on it, providing little light and a tiny bit of heat. Suddenly not wishing to freeze to death, she wrapped the scratchy blanket around her shoulders and stood. The cold stone floor shocked her bare feet, but she ignored it.

The room really did not have any doors or windows. She pushed vainly against every uneven stone she could reach to try to find one that would give, but she had no such luck.

"Hello?" she called out uncertainly.

There was no answer. She could feel magic in the room prickling her skin, but it definitely was not coming from Jareth. Her mind immediately jumped to Ifreann. But there was no possible way this was his doing. After her night with Jareth, they had both fallen asleep...

Her head suddenly throbbed as she remembered. She had awoken to find herself standing somewhere in Goblin City. There had been some kind of scuffle with someone before she had gotten suddenly dizzy. Had she passed out? How had she gotten into the city in the first place, and clothed, no less?

"Jareth?" she whispered. Nothing happened. "I wish that the Goblin King would come and take me away right now?" she muttered hopefully. Still nothing.

A horrible weight plunged through her chest into her stomach, causing her to fall back onto the bed. Where was she? And why was Jareth not coming? The silence was deafening; mocking. Panic thrummed in her chest, but she refused to lose her cool. She was not the scared little Sarah that Nøkken had turned her into. Not anymore.

She jumped to her feet in fright when a man suddenly materialized right in front of her. _No, not a man, _she thought. He was undoubtedly Fae. She could tell from the way his magic seemed to radiate out of him. But there was something odd about the magic. It seemed jerky. Oddly sharp and twitchy.

He himself seemed odd. He was taller than her with dark red locks of curly hair framing his sculpted face. His body was clearly muscled, but he was thin. Even lanky. His eyes disturbed her. They were a clear, crystal blue: beautiful, but they were jerky too. Fluctuating between happy-looking to murderous. His gaze flicked to hers and she automatically side-stepped him, trying to move away. Her back hit the wall, but he only moved so that he could turn his body in her direction.

She felt that she knew instantly that it was Ifreann, but she had enough sense not to tell him that she knew who he was. She did not want to bring out the violence and temper Jareth had warned her of by invoking his paranoia. She clutched the blanket tighter around her shivering - and scantily clad - body.

"I do apologize, it is rather cold in here," he said, voice pleasant. "Let's remedy that."

He waved his hand gracefully and something like minty green glitter escaped the glow he produced. Suddenly, the room was a few degrees warmer. She felt oddly comfortable.

"I assume you're feeling quite achy too, yes?"

Unsure, she nodded, thinking it best to answer him.

"It will pass," he brushed. "An unavoidable side-effect of the sleeping spell."

"Who are you?" she asked slowly, simply for confirmation.

"How rude of me." He suddenly bowed at the waist slightly, holding his hand out. "I am Ifreann."

Sarah glanced down at the offered appendage, but did not take it. She did not want to touch him. He seemed unaffected by this, merely straightening up and shrugging.

"And you are Sarah Williams: Jareth's latest obsession." Sarah did not like the way he hissed the words, the malicious tone with which he spoke, and the odd way he stared at her when he said it. "All blemishes healed and sickness cured, I see. But in the heat of the night, he seems to have forgotten to put up protection spells around you, hasn't he?"

His eyes had darkened, and she wished the wall would swallow her and shield her from his intense stare. Despite the blanket and clothes covering her, she felt near naked under his leer.

"How did I get here? Why can't I call him?"

"You've already tried?" Ifreann asked, sounding surprised. The darkness in his eyes was gone so suddenly that Sarah flinched. "You can't call him because I will not allow it. I put a lot of energy into making you unreachable, you see. Jareth, on the other hand, did not. It was almost too easy to make you walk right out of the castle in your sleep. You should be grateful that I allowed you to clothe yourself. I could have left you delightfully naked, although from what I hear, there's no longer any innocence to take."

Sarah was certain she felt sick. Things had been returning to normal. Or at least as normal as things could be with the Goblin King back in her life. Now...she did not even know what to think. Everything was too fast. This was too much.

"I must say, Sarah, you did a fantastic job of eliminating Nøkken," he praised, moving towards her now. "A truly beautiful thing to witness. All that blood. You do look breath-taking when you're killing."

She gasped when she realized how close he was. She could feel the heat of his body washing over her. His hand touched her face lightly and her knees shook, but she would be damned if she was going to allow this. She jerked away from him.

"Don't touch me!" she hissed.

He suddenly grabbed her chin in a frightening grip, tilting her head up. His eyes were dangerously dark again as his hand came down on the wall by her ear.

"Giving me orders and disobeying the ones I give will not be tolerated," he growled. She felt his fingers dancing on her chest, inching their way downwards. "Am I clear?"

This could not be happening, and she would not let it. She reached her hand up and clawed wildly at his face. He screamed, leaping away from her. She saw blood under his fingers and she thanked the lord that her fingernails were as strong and long as they were.

Ifreann straightened up and removed his hand. She was somewhat shocked that the angry and bloody scratches were healing. It only took a few seconds for them to disappear completely, all traces gone forever.

"While Fae bodies heal themselves almost instantly, human bodies..." He raised his hand a flicked his fingers. He did not touch her, but she felt three long cuts slice themselves down her cheek and even over her lips. She shrieked in pain. "...they do tend to scar, don't they?" His lips curled into the cruelest smile Sarah had ever seen. It sent goosebumps up her arms, legs, and neck. It made her want to curl up on the floor and cry. "So no more defiances, alright?"

She did not answer him, suddenly very afraid. His demeanour seemed to change as swiftly as the time and she hated it. She feared that even agreeing with him would spark his rage.

"I do expect you to answer me when I ask you a question, Sarah," he warned. "No more defiances."

"Okay," she whispered.

"Good," he smiled.

Sarah took a deep breath before asking, "What did Jareth do?"

He seemed to understand the question well enough because he answered her.

"He continually got on my nerves," he replied simply. "And then he decided to have me arrested for killing."

Sarah's eyes widened in disbelief. He wanted revenge on Jareth...because he found him annoying? She had been tricked into falling in love, beaten, had almost been raped and killed...all because Ifreann found Jareth annoying? She forced herself to keep quiet though. Jareth had warned her that Ifreann was crazy. She supposed that kind of behaviour was to be expected.

"You still seem confused," Ifreann noted. "But I'm afraid there is nothing more to it than that."

"Why am I here?" she asked, desperate to know his plans.

"Well, originally you should have been dead by now," he said, and it was the casual manner in which he said it that freaked her out. "After I lent Nøkken some of my magic, we decided that it was best to wait until you called Jareth. But you didn't, so we thought that perhaps violence would prompt you to call for his help. And still, you did not. Why was that? And please spare me the 'I thought we were in love' speech. I've heard it before."

The question startled her and she really had to think about why she had not called him sooner. Deep in her mind, she had known he would come.

"I don't know," she said slowly, praying that she said nothing to anger him. "I was scared, I think. I knew he would come, but I didn't know if he would hate me and let the violence continue or..."

"Or protect you and treat you with kindness as he did?" Ifreann smiled. She swallowed and nodded. "That is interesting. But as I was saying, you refused to call him. We thought we would have to push you a step further."

"By trying to drown me."

Ifreann grinned like a cheshire cat.

"Clever girl. I had Nøkken allow you the time to call for Jareth again, and in your most desperate moment, you did. I did promise the demon that he would be able to take your life as long as Jareth was there to bear witness. I'm afraid I had counted on him being shocked, though. I did not expect him to banish Nøkken again. We had to change tactics. As we expected, the next morning, with Jareth at your side, you regained some of the confidence Nøkken had beaten out of you. You felt brave enough to venture out on your own. I had Nøkken attack you just enough to scare you so that when you went running back to your Goblin King, he would be angry enough to leave you, seeking revenge.

"Unfortunately for us, he had the sense to stay with you instead of leaving you vulnerable to attack. But the next morning when things began to get a little heated, you set the plan in motion yourself. Both of you. You fought and argued until you finally ordered him away. It was then that I was going to send Nøkken in, but I had to wait until your friends had gone so I could put up a barrier. After all, Nøkken was not given that much power. The three of you would have overpowered him eventually.

"I had hoped that Nøkken would dispose of you fairly easily, but your friends heard you scream, and so did Jareth. The heat of the fight aside, he rushed back to your aid and put all of his energies into breaking down the barrier I had erected. Meanwhile, you had already broken Nøkken's nose and had figured out that steel was his weakness. I will admit that I was surprised you managed to kill him, and without any help. But to be perfectly honest, I was glad he was dead. That only meant I could be directly involved in breaking Jareth.

"I went into your dreams to make you ill, but you were fairly resistant. You managed a whole day with only a headache. Again, though, you were putting a notch in my plans. You had made your peace with Jareth and when you found yourself unable to move, you called him again. He used his own magic to soothe you, but he felt mine in the process. Within a few hours, you were in his castle and healed and I was discovered as the true perpitrator. I had to do something, right? So when you fell asleep - without the protection spells Jareth was meant to cast - I brought you here."

Sarah blinked. She already knew most of this, so why was he telling her? Surely he knew that she knew? Trying not to comment on the lunacy of it, she asked another question.

"And where exactly is here?"

Ifreann laughed, clearly amused by her.

"It isn't anywhere in particular," he answered vaguely. "It's an area of the Underground ruled by no one. A dangerous place to be, really. You should be grateful that no one knows you are here. Now, if that is all for tonight-"

Panic suddenly erupted in her chest and she bravely took a step away from the safety of the wall, towards Ifreann.

"You can't just leave me here!" she argued.

His large, thin hand suddenly grasped her shoulder and he shoved her. She stumbled, probably over her own feet, and hit the stone ground hard. She stared up at Ifreann in some kind of shock. In the blink of an eye, he was crouching over her, hands at either side of her body. She tried to move further back into the wall, but was not having much success.

"I can do with you whatever I want," he growled. "So I would advise you not to push me the wrong way."

With that, he was gone, an aura of minty green magic floating to the ground. She glanced around, making sure he was gone before she released the breath she'd been holding. She clutched the blanket more securely around herself, but did not rise from the floor. She was not even sure she could.

Suddenly, she was the hopeless little girl again. And she did not like it one bit.

**UH OHES...Ifreann finally makes an entrance. Yay him. Or not. Please review :3  
Anyhoo, this story's pace has picked up a bit because I'm eager to finish it (and not abandon it) BECAUSE I'm working on another Labyrinth story which I'm much more excited about. So be on the lookout for another one :D**


	17. Chapter 16: My Way

**We've come to yet another chapter :D I feel so proud of myself for actually getting this far despite problems with the computers :L Also, I wrote pretty much ALL of this chapter from Jareth's third person then I realised I REALLY didn't like it. I think the emotions and feelings he would feel upon discovering Sarah missing were too complicated and even a little un-Jareth, so I decided not to do it. **

**Ah well, more Ifreann instead. We'll get to see some of his infamous insanity. It's creepy. **

Sarah quickly found that when she needed to go the bathroom, a wooden door suddenly materialized on whatever wall she was facing. Through it, she had foolishly hoped she would find a means of escape, but no. Only a toilet and a sink. This did not drag her further into the dumps she was already in, it simply confirmed for her that there was definitely no way she was escaping manually.

She had calmed herself down considerably since Ifreann had left her, and now she mostly felt bored. The least he could have done for her was to leave her with some form of entertainment. Surely it was not impossible for him to conjure a book or something for her.

She tried not to let thoughts of what Jareth would be thinking plague her mind. She dearly hoped he would at least try to be calm instead of causing the uproar she felt he would. She rolled onto her back, sighing, twisting the blanket around her legs. This kind of boredom did not come easily to her, and she was certain her brain would explode soon if there was nothing to keep her amused.

At first, she tried to count the stones keeping her caged in, but she was quickly lost, confused by the layout. She glared at the candle which did not seem to be melting or receding at all like normal candles. _Magic, _she thought. She was really beginning to dislike magic at this point, regardless of how useful it could be.

She lifted her legs and stared at her toes and feet for a while, but eventually gave up on that too. Whenever Ifreann decided to reappear, she would definitely be asking him for entertainment. _If he's going to kill me, he could at least make my last few hours interesting, _she thought half-heartedly.

If she was being truthful with herself, she was not all that worried. Surely that was unhealthy. She should be quivering in light of her imminent death. But she wasn't. She was, instead, filled with a strange kind of cockiness and was a little nervous as to where it was coming from. Her situation was hopeless, so why was she so damn calm about it?

A strange shuffling noise caught her attention and she leapt into a sitting position on the bed when Ifreann suddenly appeared in the corner of her eye. His smile was sadistic and gleeful.

"Just wait until you see this," he said happily. "It's delightful."

He turned away from her and waved his hand slightly. Minty green smoke collected in midair and she could see images moving within it. Wary, she got to her feet and approached it. The pictures became clearer the closer she got.

With a horrible clench in her chest, she realized what she was seeing. It was Jareth. And he looked completely stricken. He had only dressed in the grey breeches he'd taken off the night before and nothing else. He sat on the bed, head in his hands clutching his hair. He was shaking, though from rage or something else, Sarah could not tell.

Someone was in the partially destroyed room with him. A short, old man. A Dwarf. A jolt was sent through her. Hoggle!

"If ye jus' stay calm-" Hoggle was saying.

"Do not tell me to stay calm!" Jareth hissed. "I've been such a fool! I was far too wrapped up in my own selfish desires to protect her! Once again, my emotions left her open to attack!"

"I'm sure Sarah's fine," Hoggle said, trying to be reassuring. "You know her."

"In the hands of Ifreann?" Jareth demanded. "Do not treat me like a child, Hogbrain."

Ifreann suddenly sliced his hand through the smoke and the images and sounds vanished. Feeling suddenly angry, she rounded on the Fae, glaring up at him. That dark and evil pleasure was still rife in his eyes.

When she had turned, she had been intent on throttling him, but suddenly, she wanted to run. She could feel his magic again, erratic and jerky. Almost like an aura, but it was completely invisible. He took a slow step towards her and she jumped back. Something was really wrong here. More wrong that it already was.

"I'll be gracious and give you a fair warning, Sarah," Ifreann said, his voice low. "If things do not go according to my exact specifications, there will be consequences. Am I clear?"

She frowned, staring at him incredulously.

"What specifications? What are you talking about?"

She continued to back away from him as he advanced, slowly, like a predator stalking its prey; backing it into a corner. Sarah's heart jumped into her throat when she realized that was exactly what he was doing. But she could do nothing to counter it. Her feet were moving of their own accord, taking her further away from the thing that so clearly wanted to hurt her.

Ifreann grinned.

"What's your Aboveground phrase?" he said, gleeful malice in his voice and eyes. "Smile for the camera."

"Wh-?"

A squeal of fright escaped her. Ifreann's hand shot out and his fingers curled around her neck. She felt herself fly backwards, and her back slammed hard into the stone wall. His grip was constricting, but was not cutting of her air supply completely.

He moved closer so that he was practically pressed right against her. His head dipped, and she automatically turned her head, refusing to let him kiss her. This seemed to be just what he wanted, though. He muttered some kind of praise under his breath and his tongue flicked out. She flinched in pain. His saliva was like salt in the cuts on her face as he ran his tongue up the one that started on her lower lip and ended just beneath her eye.

Both of her hands were free, so she curled her fist and thrust it towards Ifreann's chin. He caught it, released her neck, and suddenly pinned both of her arms slightly above her head.

"Now, now, Sarah," he hissed. "I want this looking just right for Jareth."

Her heart seemed to skip a beat, but she was surprised she even noticed that at all: her heartbeat was otherwise erratic and wild.

"J-Jareth?" she asked.

"Yes, he's watching," Ifreann whispered, a horrible grin on his face. "And I want him to see you scream, Sarah. I want him to see how frightened I make you so that he can almost feel physical pain because he cannot help you."

With this new knowledge, she was suddenly determined not to show any emotion. She did not want to show fear or cry. She was not even sure if she should fight back, knowing it to be futile. What would hurt Jareth more?

Ifreann's nails suddenly dug into her wrists, but she was ready for it. She made not a sound. She did not even flinch. And he noticed.

"Sarah, this goes my way," he warned.

"You're sick," she snarled.

She collected saliva in the back of her throat and suddenly spat it out at him, her body completely taking control. A swell of pride erupted in her when it hit him square in the eye. He roared in disgust and leapt away from her.

"Is Jareth still watching?" she dared, a dry tone to her voice.

"You little bitch!" he suddenly screamed, and Sarah winced.

Here was the insanity Jareth had warned her about. The intense rage and violence was coming out. It terrified her more than anything ever had. She wanted out. Out of this room. Out of the whole thing. She did not want to see Ifreann ever again.

"I fucking warned you!" he shrieked, straightening up and pacing the room quickly, murderous. He suddenly stopped and turned that terrifying glare onto her. She froze. "Things are to be done _my _way! They way I want them! You promised me there would be no more defiances! You little liar!" He was inches from her in an instant, his hands pushing her shoulders hard into the rough stone, spit flecking her face. "What else have you lied about? What has Jareth told you?"

Her mouth opened and closed uselessly for a few seconds, no sounds coming out. Her voice was trapped by complete shock. When she did manage to speak, her sentence was strangled and jerky, unable to form completely.

"I-I don't - no, he hasn't-"

"My way!" he screamed.

A moment of dizziness swept through her, and she felt her head crack against the floor. She rolled over, and stared up at Ifreann. His lips were pulled back over his sharp teeth in a feral snarl. He took a step towards her and she scrambled backwards on her elbows to keep away from him. He swiftly reached down and grabbed a fistful of her hair. Not wanting to be rendered partially bald, she struggled to her feet, gripping his hand to try to stop him yanking her hair right from her scalp.

She was thrust against the wall again, all air knocked from her lungs. He grabbed her upper arms, leaning forwards. She was still recovering from when her hair had almost parted with her scalp.

"My way!" he repeated.

Without warning, tears were suddenly cascading down his cheeks. Utterly bewildered, Sarah could do and say nothing. Instead, her mouth hung open. Ifreann's forehead connected painfully with her shoulder as he sobbed into her, his shaking body sending tremors through her own.

_What's going on? This is more than just being crazy._

"My way..." Ifreann whispered, his voice weak and thick.

He dropped down to his knees, but Sarah found she couldn't move away from him, even though she was completely free to. He suddenly grabbed her ankles and looked up at her, his expression desperate. Sarah's heart was going insane. She had no idea what to think as she clung to the wall with Ifreann clutching at her ankles.

"Please, it has to be my way," he begged. "Otherwise...bad things...she...not..."

Not caring if Jareth was still able to see it all - and not even sure what Ifreann was talking about - she found herself nodding. She leant heavily on the wall for support, not sure her legs could support her full weight now.

"Y-Yes," she breathed, still bewildered. "Your way...whatever you say..."

Ifreann looked down.

"You...you understand..."

She was not sure if it was a question or a statement, but it hardly mattered.

"I'm not sure if I do," she admitted, and he looked back up at her, upset. "But...I can try to," she added kindly. There was something strange about his tears. They seemed...genuine. As if there was something that truly depressed him so much. "If you...help me. If you tell me...I can try to understand."

"...so kind," Ifreann mumbled incoherently. "...can see...why..."

He vanished suddenly and Sarah slid down the wall, landing hard on the ground, glancing around for any signs of his return. She was confused. Terrified. Oddly sympathetic. Now the tears fell. Ifreann was mental and there was no argument there, but there was something else too. She knew the look in his eyes all to well.

She shook her head of the thoughts.

"Jareth, if you can still see me, or hear me, I don't know where I am," she said to the room. "He said that we weren't anywhere in particular, a land ruled by no one. I don't really know what that means, but maybe you do."

There was no answer, but she did not expect one. She let her head loll back against the wall, exhausted. How was it that a simple confrontation could leave her so spent?

She forced herself up onto her shaky legs, and moved to the bed, figuring it was better than sitting on the hard floor. Collapsing onto it, she rolled onto her front and buried her face in the pillow. Things suddenly seemed a lot more complicated, and she had no idea why.

**See that? Ifreann is UTTERLY LOOPY! But there's other stuff too. Please review :3 You guys have been pretty awesome at reviewing :P Also, if his sudden outburst was scary and disconcerting and all that, don't hate on me. That's sort of what I was going for XD.**

**Also, the prologue of my new story 'Remember' is up, so please give that a read and leave me a nice lil review :3**


	18. Chapter 17: Ultimately

**Chapter seventeen! OMAIGAD! I don't know why that excites me so much, but it does :P We should probably change the title of this story...it's hardly about Nøkken any longer XD**

**There is an anonymous reviewer out there...who says this is their favourite Sarah/Jareth story out there. WHO BE YOU? You made my day :D And yeah, I kinda like Ifreann too actually, despite his craziness. But that's because I know his story and who the 'she' is. XD, thanks for reviewing :P**

* * *

Jareth was shocked, to say the least. He had been since that damnable green mist had floated its way into his chambers almost an hour after discovering Sarah was missing. Even then, he knew he'd been inconsolable. Irrational. But he could hardly help himself. He had been an idiot. She was gone because of him. In trouble once again because of him.

Ifreann's display of violence and clear dominance was not uncommon, and though Jareth had tried not to react, he could not help himself. Sarah, on the other hand, had refused to make a sound, or even let her face betray the terror he knew she would be feeling. He sensed that Ifreann had wanted her to show her fear, but she was far too stubborn to go along with his plans.

She had very easily invoked his anger, and then, strangely enough, his sadness. His words had been incoherent and Jareth had been completely shocked to see Sarah's face soften with something like sympathy or kindness. Swiftly after that, Ifreann had left her, completely forgetting to bring down his spell. This allowed Jareth to keep his eye on her for a while, although he still could not locate her, or speak to her.

She sank to the ground and glanced around.

"He said we were nowhere in particular," she said, her voice shaky. "I don't know what that means, but maybe you do."

As she forced herself towards the warm bed, he growled. Those three long cuts running down her face looked fresh, and painful. She hardly seemed bothered by them as she flopped onto the bed and buried her face in the pillow.

He desperately wanted to comfort her. To let her know that he would bring her back, but all he could do was watch her. She did not sleep, but she refused to roll over either. He could hear her weeping faintly, but it was nothing compared to the sobs she would have been heaving a few days ago. She was getting stronger again.

The mist abruptly dissipated and he stood. _Nowhere in particular... _What did that mean? Not that Ifreann was hiding her out in the middle of some unclaimed part of the Underground. Jareth shivered. There were creatures there more deadly than anywhere in the universe. But she seemed safe enough in her boxed prison with no doors or windows. That seemed to imply that Ifreann wanted her hidden from sight, so he could not use magic to trace her.

"What are you up to, Ifreann?" he asked aloud. Surely he could not have taken her simply to show him these random acts of violence on her. That did not seem like Ifreann. Then again, maybe the madness had eaten at him a little more in the past fifty years.

He sighed and left his chambers, not bothering to dress appropriately. After all, they were only goblins. He made his way to the throne room and held his hands out for silence. The goblins recognised the serious gesture and quietened at once, staring at him.

"The Lady Sarah has been taken," he explained, and they all gasped. "I want you to assemble every goblin appropriate and every creature that is willing to search every area of the No Man's Land to find her. She will likely be hidden by magic, so do not miss anything. If any of you find anything, I want you to report back swiftly. Am I understood?"

The goblins nodded and muttered their agreement before scuttling off. He sank into the throne, glad that the imbeciles had managed to grasp how serious this situation was, even though the majority of them had never met her. In the meantime, he had to do all he can to try to relocate Sarah through his crystals.

* * *

Sarah had rolled onto her back and visibly flinched when Ifreann suddenly materialized in the centre of the room for a third time. She quickly relaxed: he seemed to have calmed down. In fact, he looked downright nervous. The magic that swelled around him like some kind of invisible wave had dimmed severely, and she could barely feel it there at all.

Ifreann's blue eyes gazed down at her hesitantly, and she sat up, wondering what this could be about.

"I've heard that you enjoy reading," he said, slow and quiet.

Uncertainly, she nodded.

He held out his right hand, palm up. Green mist swirled around the appendage and some kind of old, leather-bound book formed there. She frowned, and glanced up at him tentatively.

"It may not be to your tastes exactly," he said quickly, looking down sheepishly. "But I'm afraid I don't own very many books."

He held it out to her and she looked at him, trying to somehow work out if there was any ulterior motive behind the gesture. There did not seem to be, but she knew she could not be too careful. Still, what harm could a book do? At least it would give her something to do for a few hours.

She reached up and gingerly took it from his hand. He watched her with fascintation the whole time.

"About my behaviour earlier," he muttered. "My aggression and my upset. I must apologize for that. I'm afraid I can't help it, no matter what I do. It eats me up inside and makes me..." He trailed off for a moment, briefly lost in his own mind before jerking his head sharply and pulling himself back. "I will try not to let that side of me out near you again, Sarah. I promise."

Taken aback, Sarah gaped at him.

"Th-Thank you," she stammered.

"You know, Sarah," Ifreann said quietly. "If there's anything you want or need, you simply have to ask for it and the room will provide it."

She inhaled a shaky breath, and studied Ifreann's face carefully. She was not sure if speaking her mind here would be acceptable, but she chose to do it anyway. What more could Ifreann possibly do?

"What I really want," she said slowly, testing the waters, "is to get out of here. I want to go back to Jareth and I want to have as normal a life as I can with the Goblin King in it. I want people to stop trying to hurt me for the sake of hurting him and I want none of this to ever have happened. Can your room do that?" she added dryly.

He regarded her curiously, something of a melancholy smile breaking onto his face.

"While you may be likeable at best, Jareth is not. It doesn't matter how witty or kind you are, Sarah, or whether I decide to treat you with kindness. I will still use you to hurt Jareth, and that ultimately results in your death."

Green mist began to swirl around him.

"Wait!" she called, and the mist seemed to freeze in midair. "I want to know what happened to make you hate him so much. It's more than him annoying you. I know it is."

"A story for another time," he brushed. "One you probably will never hear, in fact."

He was trying to leave again. She tried a final time.

"Ifreann!" He stopped again. "Please just let me go. Use someone else to hurt Jareth. I didn't do anything wrong, so why should I be punished for something he did before my _parents_ were even born?"

Ifreann blinked, momentarily shocked. He quickly regained composure though, but his smile did not return this time.

"You were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, Sarah," Ifreann sighed. "Collateral damage is what they call it in the Above, I believe."

"But it doesn't have to be that way!" she protested. She would be damned if she was going to allow herself to be killed. "Why can't you be the better person and just forget about whatever he did?"

He scowled.

"You should not talk about what you do not understand," he said flatly. "I do not want to hear another word out of you."

"But-"

He was gone again, leaving her completely alone. She half-heartedly wished that if he was going to kill her, he would just get on with it instead of drawing out her misery. It was doing no one any good.

Within the next few hours, she felt herself grow hungry and was pleasantly surprised when a plate of food appeared on the table next to the bed. She glanced down at it tentatively, and was vaguely amused. She had been craving a McDonald's and here it was. She felt sure that if she wanted something as exotic as shark she would have it. This small comfort did little for her nerves in reality.

The picked hesitantly at the fries and the hamburger, the harsh reality setting in. Ifreann was really going to kill her, and he could not be persuaded otherwise. God only knew what else he had planned.

"I always knew you would be the death of me, Jareth," she mused, oddly calm.

She desperately wanted to go back to him. They had been through so much in such a short time. They had even slept together. Right when everything was perfect, they were ripped apart again. It seemed that there was always going to be something in the way, whether it was running a Labyrinth to save a kidnapped baby brother, or if it was a bitter being bent on destroying them both.

_Never a dull moment, _she thought, laughing to herself.

She flicked absently through the book Ifreann had given her but just as he had said, it was not very entertaining. Who wanted to read about growing cucumbers when they were lying in wait for death?

Frustrated, she got to her feet and approached the wall opposite the bed. She pushed against it again but nothing happened.

"I want out," she said aloud. Again, nothing. Stuck by a sudden idea, Sarah tried to keep herself calm. "I want the stones of these walls to fall down."

She held her breath, waiting and hoping, praying that this would work. A few seconds of nothing went by, then a little dust fell. The room began to shake, slowly at first, but then so violently that she had to grasp the wall to stay upright. One by one, the stones fell. From the ceiling and the walls. She had t close her eyes against the debris and dust, even choking a little on it.

When she opened her eyes, her heart soared and plummetted in unison.

She was out, but she was also completely lost.

**Hmm, isn't my writing getting lazy? I do apologize for that, but these recent chapters have bored me and I just wanna finish it now so I can get onto my next Labyrinth story. Also, Sarah may be out, but Ifreann's story will still be explained. Oh, review :3**


	19. Chapter 18: Enough

**This chapter is rather long. A flashback, dude. And a lot of inner thoughts. Thanks for being so patient :3 I personally really like this chapter because you'll all finally get to see what really happened between Sarah and Neal/****Nøkken when they met and how things started to go awry. And how she felt when he turned nasty.**

Sarah powered on, walking straight ahead. The ground was made of only some kind of dusty sand which rose into the air and swirled gently when she took a step. The sun was hot on her legs, but she barely noticed. She was only focussed on what was straight ahead. Which was nothing.

She continued to repeat Jareth's name and wish for him to come, but nothing happened. She was not too disappointed however. She simply put it down to Ifreann's magic blocking her still. Her toes and the soles of her feet hurt from stubbing them and tripping over hidden rocks, but she still walked. Surely there had to be something somewhere.

Once or twice, she came across some kind of small creature. A lizard with features too prominent to be a normal one, or a snake with oddly human eyes. They left her alone, however, and she paid them no mind. She was still reeling from the fact that she'd actually gotten out. She remember the phrase "everything is not as it seems". She had thought her situation hopeless, but no. There had been a loophole. The room would give her what she wanted, but would not allow her to leave. So if she instead asked for the room to fall down, and not for it to release her, it made perfect sense for it to work.

She knew that she could not walk this desert forever: she would tire, or succumb to thirst or something, but surely there was _something _here. There had to be eventually. There was nothing in the world that went on forever. But then again, this wasn't her world. This was a world where everything and anything was possible. In fact, that thought was proved right when something large, black, and scaly soared overhead. It left her alone, whatever it was, so she did not linger on it.

Soon her legs were starting to sieze up and her feet ached terribly. Her skin was surely burning from the sun and her mouth and throat were so dry she was not sure she would be able to speak again for a while. And she relentlessly powered on. She would be damned if she was not going to get the happiness she craved after everything she'd been through.

Sarah reflected on the past as she walked.

When she was four years old, she had almost been killed. She could not remember it, but she did not want to. She only knew what Jareth had told her. She'd been playing with Lancelot in the park and a Norse water demon had lured her into the water. If she hadn't had the sense inside the panic to call for help, she could very well have died. But Jareth had saved her, and spared her the trauma by making her forget about it.

Eleven years later, she'd unknowingly wished away her baby brother. She'd endured dangers untold and hardships unnumbered to get him back. She'd brutally rejected the only man she had ever desired in order to retrieve her sibling. _Hardships indeed, _she scoffed.

A further three years after that, she'd stopped for coffee in town to run into the dark-haired and charming Neal. With his dark blue eyes, disaming smile, and arrogant nature, Sarah supposed he'd reminded her too much of a certain Goblin King. They had begun dating not a week later. Neal had been wonderful. Arrogant and domineering, but ultimately kind and caring. Tender and loving. He had been generous. Always buying her odd little things that she expressed an interest in, taking her out to places most would not think worth the trouble. He had been charming, too. He would constantly compliment her, but not necessarily in a way that would be considered cheesy. His kisses had been passionate, his caress almost worshipping.

When she thought about it now, she supposed she should have realized that he was far too perfect to be real. He had waited until they had been dating for six months before Nøkken began showing through. He had started to ask about going out on a boat trip, but Sarah had expressed her unexplainable fear of water - which she now realized probably had something to with nearly being drowned as a child. Though she had protested, he had only insisted. For weeks and weeks. He had let the subject drop for a while, but soon after she'd turned nineteen, he seemed to become impatient. His gentle words had turned harsh. Instead of sweet whisperings, they were hissed insults, not always in a language she understood.

Nevertheless, she'd been that much of a fool that she'd agreed to spend the night with him at his house. That had not ended well at all.

* * *

_Sarah sighs as she knocks on Neal's front door. She is feeling somewhat apprehensive, but she wants this to work. Things have been going so well and she doesn't want a simple disagreement to ruin things. Neal answers relatively quickly and smiles down at her. She grins back and reaches up to kiss him quickly. He returns the kiss happily and steps aside for her to enter._

_The house is relatively large, but she's been told that it belonged to his parents who are no longer alive. She drops her bag by the floor and hangs her coat up on the hanger on the wall. She glanced nervously up at Neal, but he simply smiles, holding his arms open to her._

_Without question, she walks into his embrace and rests her head on his chest. His arms encircle her tightly, she feels his lips pressing into her hair. Suddenly, there is no need for words. He is apologizing in his own way, and that is all she needs._

_He releases her and leads her into the living room. They spend most of the night nestled in each others arms, laughing half-heartedly at terrible late-night TV._

_Suddenly, Neal glances outside. He looks down at her a smiles._

_"Sarah, how about we go outside to the lake in the garden?" he suggests innocently. "You'll love it: it's beautiful."_

_She shakes her head._

_"You know I don't like water," she reminds him._

_"Come on, sweet," he urges. "I won't let you fall in."_

_He laughes jokingly, but she is suddenly feeling uncomfortable. She pushes herself out of his arms and sits up, facing away from him. She wants to be able to go out to the lake without that irrational fear claiming her whole body, but she knows if she even steps foot into a boat, she will panic._

_She shakes her head again._

_"No," she affirms. "I'm scared."_

_"Of what?" he laughs, but she hears the odd demand in there too. She scowls. He is mocking her._

_"I don't know," she mutters._

_"Well, then what is the problem?" _

_"I don't know!" she shouts, suddenly very angry. This is the reason she fell out with him before, and here he is causing it all again. "I just don't like water that goes any higher than my knees."_

_"You're being stupid," he groans._

_A stab of pain hits her chest when he says this. She is not being stupid, she is genuinely afraid. Why can't he see this? She gets to her feet angrily._

_"Look, maybe I should just go home."_

_"There you go again," Neal growls, getting to his feet too. "Running away from your problems. Just grow up, Sarah, and stop being such a baby."_

_She glares at him. She thought they were past this, but clearly they are not._

_"I can't believe you!" she shrieks. "You keep doing this! If you can't handle that I'm afraid of water and I won't get in a damn boat with you, maybe we should just stop this! We should just stop pretending to be a happy couple. Because we're not. You can't accept that I have a flaw."_

_He shrugs._

_"Then leave," he suggests. "I don't care. Stop seeing me. As I said, I don't care."_

_His stare is challenging. Doing her best not to shed any tears, she furiously turns her back on him and storms away._

_Without any kind of warning - and she certainly doesn't expect it - his hand closes over her wrist. His grip is hard and bruising. He yanks her back around to face him, grabbing her other wrist in the process. Adrenaline shoots through her at his expression._

_"Who do you think you are, to just walk away from me?"_

_She pulls against him, but he has always been much stronger than her. She is a butterfly, he is a rock._

_"Let go," she orders. "I'm going home."_

_"No you're not, sweet," he hisses. "You're going to the lake."_

_She suddenly feels sick. Whatever kind of joke he is playing is a not a funny one. She tries to jerk herself out of his grip again, but it only causes her more pain. He suddenly whirls her around and shoves her so that her back hits the wall. His arms come down at either side of her head, and she is sure the wall cracks above her._

_Her eyes widen as his fist pulls back then shoots towards her face at an alarming rate. She ducks down to the side. His knuckles barely caress her cheek as she dodges under his arm and off to the side. His fist connects with the wall and he groans in pain._

_Neal suddenly rounds on her, but her path to the door is blocked._

_"Neal-" she begins, holding up her hands._

_"Don't speak!" he hisses._

_Fear is coursing through her fast now. She hates the look in his eye. And he hates her._

_"Riddle me this, sweetling," Neal continues. "Why is it that you and I have been a couple for almost a year now and we've yet to sleep together?"_

_Her breath hitches and she cannot stop the thought in her mind. __**Because you're not him. **__But she has enough sense not to say anything. She is not even sure if she understands the thought herself._

_"I think we should remedy that, don't you?"_

_"Wh-?"_

_She cannot continue the sentence as suddenly Neal is grabbing her and throwing her down. She lands on the carpeted floor hard on her side. Before she can even roll over properly, Neal is on her, moving her himself so that she is lying on her back._

_His hands are over her wrists again, holding her arms above her head. His weight on her midriff pins her completely. His knee moves between her legs to part them. Tears suddenly spill out, terror leaking out. This is the man she is supposed to love and trust. Now she only resents and fears him._

_Trembling, she tries to twist her body away, but he is far stronger and keeps her pinned easily._

_"Neal, no," she pleads._

_She tries to move her other leg to knee him in the groin, but he suddenly moves again. One of his hands is on her thigh, pinning her leg to the ground. His other arm curls. Abruptly, he elbows her hard in the ribs. There is a crack and Sarah utters a shriek of pain, all breath leaving her so that she can barely talk. It hurts to breath. It hurts to try._

_Neal's smirk is unbearable. He leans down. Even her hands on his chest pushing as hard as she can does nothing to impede him. His nose is practically touching hers._

_"Please," she manages to choke. "Neal, don't."_

_"Perhaps you should call for help," he mocks, pulling at the sleeves of her t-shirt. "Who would come to your rescue, I wonder?"_

_An image of the Goblin King suddenly enters her mind. She could call him now. She could simply wish for him. He will come. But will he save her? There is no point in worrying about that right now, though._

_"Let me go!" she shrieks, writhing wildly to try to break free. His hands begin to wander her body, leaving no area untouched. "Neal, please! Stop!" His fingers reach the waistband of her jeans. "No!"_

_She suddenly screams as loud as she can, and it seems to shock him for a moment. She curls her fist and punches him square in the jaw. He cries out and leaps up away from her. She scrambles for the door, managing to get to her feet. Without thinking about anything, she grabs her coat and bag from the hallway and sprints from the house._

_She hurdles over the low gate and barely glances back. Neal is leaning against the frame of the front door, watching her with a small smirk on his face._

_"I'll get you to the lake eventually, sweet Sarah," he promises._

* * *

With a pang, Sarah realized she was crying. Actually crying for that monster. She couldn't, for the life of her, understand why. He deserved nothing from her. Especially not now that he was dead.

She shook her head of that memory. She did not want to have to think about the sickening terror she had felt. The same applied to when he'd almost drowned her. It was a painful burning kind of terror mixed with something heavy and ice cold. If Jareth hadn't come when she'd called...

No, she had to stop thinking about what could have happened. She could have died, been raped, but she hadn't been. She was fine. Sort of. If she could only find _something _in this wasteland.

Totally spent, she collapsed into the sand. She managed to pull herself to a rock and into a sitting position, but that did not leave her any better off. The rock was flat and protruded from the sand mere centimeters.

There had to be something, someone, somewhere...

She closed her eyes.

"Bravo, Sarah."

Her heart sank. Ifreann had found her. This was really going to end. At least she had tried.

"You came really far," he commented casually. "Really, most would have given up long before now."

She opened her eyes and stared up at the Fae. He was smirking, but he looked somewhat upset too. He walked slowly towards her, stopping just short of a foot close to her.

"If you're going to kill me, please just do it," she requested. "I've had enough of sitting around waiting."

He tilted his head to the side for a moment, then lowered himself onto one knee. His index finger went under her chin, lifting her head just a little. He sighed. She raised her hands and shoved his away.

"Just get it over with!" she hissed.

He grabbed her forearm and pulled her up to her feet. She did not protest. She was not sure if she could.

"Answer one question, Sarah," Ifreann ordered. "Why do you try so hard? Why do you put yourself through all of this just for him?"

Sarah raised her eyes to stare at him, glaring.

"Because I love him."

"You do?"

Sarah's heart skipped a beat at the sound of the new voice.

**I'd like to tell y'all the reason this one took so long. I am perfectly aware that the last chapter was NOT my best at all and I'll admit I was losing interest. I really didn't want to let my readers down and so I worked really hard on not making this chapter shitty :3 Here's hoping I did well. Review :D  
One more chapter to go dudes. I think. It depends on what happens when I write it. There might be an epilogue.**


	20. Chapter 19: Reason

**I just want to say, to all anonymous and guest reviewers who I couldn't respond to personally, thanks so much for taking the time to R&R :D It means so much to me. There will be an epilogue after this chapter, but then the story is finito :O I've never finished a story before O_o This could turn out horrible.**

Ifreann whirled her around so fast that she was certain her neck cracked. His arm snaked around her shoulders, pinning her back to his front. She hardly cared at this point. Her heart was soaring. She felt the strange urge to laugh. He was here. Perhaps there was some hope left for them after all.

Jareth looked somewhat shocked standing a few feet away from them. She cared not what he looked like. He was here. He had found her. Albeit just a few seconds too late.

"What did you say?" both Ifreann and Jareth asked.

She was shaken from her momentary euphoria just like that. Her hands came up in an effort to pull Ifreann's arm from around her shoulders, and she glanced up at him.

"I love him," she repeated confidently. It was true, she realized. She could hardly explain it at all, she just knew that it was the truth. She turned her head to look at Jareth. "I love you."

Jareth seemed to grin for a moment, but it faltered as he focussed on the situation at hand, which was rapidly becoming worse by the second. Ifreann was laughing. Laughing so hard, in fact, that he was unintentionally shaking her body along with his. She cringed at the sound, once again torn back to thinking that Ifreann was one hundred percent totally insane.

His fingers began to dig into her shoulder. He threw his head back, still cackling. She glanced uncertainly at Jareth, but he wasn't looking at her. He was frowning carefully at Ifreann, trying to figure out what was so funny. That was something Sarah would like to know herself.

Still, he seemed distracted. Her attempt to break free was futile, though. He only gripped her harder.

"You...love him," Ifreann managed to choke out. "Isn't that sweet? Just precious, in fact. And you, Jareth. You, of course, love her back."

Jareth barely moved as he replied, "What are you doing, Ifreann?"

The sound of his voice alone made her almost pine for him. He was mere feet away from her. She wanted to be able to reach out and touch him, but Ifreann held fast.

"You know what I was thinking?" Ifreann mused aloud, ceasing his laughter. "That it would be just fitting if Sarah died somewhere that I had power over, just as Sally died someplace _you _had power over."

Wondering who Sally was, Sarah glanced back to Jareth. His scowl had dropped, and he was grimacing now, in an almost painful way. Even his skin had paled a little. How odd.

"Sally..." he whispered, looking as if he remembered something he had long forgotten, and was completely crestfallen about it.

"Who's Sally?" Sarah dared to ask.

"Yes, Jareth," Ifreann spat, gripping her harder still. "Do tell Sarah who Sally is."

The Goblin King was silent. He looked hesitant, nervous. Unwilling. Where were these alien emotions coming from?

"Jareth?" she prompted.

"Sally was...mortal," he said slowly, eyes never leaving Ifreann. "Almost seventy years ago, she wished away her daughter to me, and I granted her the chance to win her back."

"But?" Ifreann prompted harshly.

"But..." Jareth took a deep breath. "I took my eyes off her for a second when she was running the Labyrinth. She fell into an Oubliette, and she died."

Sarah's breath caught. A young woman had actually _died _running the Labyrinth? What had happened to her daughter? To her family Aboveground? Was that why every time she'd found herself falling, she simply floated, unharmed, to the ground?

"You're missing out one very small but important detail, Jareth, old friend," Ifreann hissed. Jareth shook his head. He was not going to say it. "Shall I tell her, then? Very well." Ifreann released her suddenly and spun her again so that she was facing him. His eyes were alight with anger, and something else. He held her in place by her elbows. "Even before Sally ran the damned Labyrinth, I knew her personally. In fact, I was rather infatuated with her. One might say I loved her." He said the words with forced harshness, but Sarah was more shocked by the words themselves than by the way he was saying them. "Even the child was no mortal. The child was _my _child."

Sarah was abruptly yanked to the side, but held by Ifreann's side by one of his hands. She was still trying to take in this new information when he was ranting again.

"He took everything from me," he snarled. "The only woman I've ever loved, and my only child. They all wondered why I was so difficult to be around. But he never told anyone. He kept his little secret hidden. And then he had the audacity - _the nerve_ - to actually have me arrested and thrown into a common prison for taking out my frustrations on someone who deserved nothing less than what I did to him."

Sarah's head was swimming. She was struggling to understand everything completely. What had happened to Sally's child? To _his _child? What had he done to the Fae he'd killed on purpose? Why did he feel the Fae had deserved it? There were so many questions, but she could not ask them. For one thing, she wouldn't know where to start.

Ifreann was shaking now, though with what, she could not tell.

"Ifreann," Jareth began. "I made a mistake. It was an accident. How can you possibly expect to punish Sarah for the only mistake I ever made where the Labyrinth is concerned? It's...unfair."

"It wasn't fair when Sally broke her neck at the bottom of one of those dark holes all alone, was it?" Ifreann fired back, but his voice was thick. He was crying again. "Was it fair when you sent my daughter away to live with complete strangers where I couldn't see her?"

Jareth shook his head.

"None of it was fair," he agreed. "But you were unfit for caring for her. You know that."

"And didn't you think that perhaps taking away the one thing I had left in both worlds would have consequences?" he shrieked. "My daughter, Jareth! She was the one thing I had left! And you took her away from me!"

Sarah felt tears in her own eyes now. It really wasn't fair. But it made more sense now. She knew from her books that the Fae could only love once, and that heartbreak could kill them. Ifreann had survived, but after his daughter had been taken away, it had pushed him completely over the edge of the sanity he had barely been retaining.

Ifreann fell, and Sarah was pulled down with him, but she was actually thankful for this. Her legs were too weak and shaky to hold her up. The Fae reached up to grab her head, practically clawing at her face as he did.

"Now do you understand?" he demanded, tears cascading painfully down his face. "_Everything _was taken away from me! I had nothing left! Nobody has any right to be surprised at all! None of you have any right to act like I am the villain!"

Sarah nodded.

"No, you're right," she said, trying to be gentle, trying to push away her own tears. "Nothing that happened to you was fair. But please think about this: nothing that has happened to me so far has been fair either, has it? Sending Nøkken after me, having him do everything he did to me: that wasn't fair. Kidnapping me and making me wait until you killed me, making Jareth watch what you tried to do wasn't fair. It's not fair to me: I wasn't even alive when Sally died. It's not fair to Jareth either. It was an accident. They happen. And your daughter was probably better off with a family who could care for her instead of a father who couldn't. And you're not being fair to yourself. You're digging this hole, and if you keep going the way you're going, that hole is going to be your own grave."

She could see that her carefully executed but truthful speech was having an effect on Ifreann. He was shaking harder than ever, his lips trembling, eyes screwing up in pain. His head dropped forwards, his hands sliding down to her hands which he grasped tightly. She was surprised to feel his lips kissing her knuckles.

"Oh, Danu, forgive me," he whispered. "I am so sorry."

Nervously, she glanced up at Jareth. He was watching Ifreann with a newfound kind of tenderness, not the anger she had expected. He approached them slowly and knelt down. His hand rested on Ifreann's shoulder.

"You have to let go," Jareth whispered. "We've all had enough of this. We want our lives back."

Ifreann looked up at Jareth.

"I'm going back to that prison, aren't I?"

"Most likely," Jareth nodded.

Ifreann stood suddenly, glanced down at Sarah, and smiled in an oddly warm way. Green mist surrounded him, and he was gone just like that. Nowhere to be seen. The only traces of him were the indents in the sand where he'd stood.

"Shouldn't you-?"

"No," Jareth said firmly. "Let him go. Like I said, we've all had enough. I don't think he'll bother us again, in any case." His arms scooped her up gently, she put her arms around his neck, burrowing her face into his neck as he carried her. She felt his lips in her hair. "I love you too, you know."

"I know."

She did know, but hearing the words from his lips made her feel warm and oddly tingly. And content. She never wanted to leave his arms again.

After the nauseating sensation of travelling by magic left her, she opened her eyes, paying attention to the corridor Jareth was walking down, and revelling in the fact that she was not the one walking it.

"What _did _happen to Ifreann's daughter?"

"She was sent to a human family in the South of the Underground," he replied. "She still lives, but her age is catching up with her now."

Sarah nodded.

"What do you think will happen to Ifreann?"

"Despite your excellent performance, I doubt he'll get any better," Jareth said softly. "Twenty years of trying to fix him went by wasted, and he spent half a century in prison. When we find him, I have to assume that's where he'll be spending the rest of his life, however short that may be."

"What do you mean?"

"As you well know, heartbreak can kill our race. Ifreann has already suffered through two, even with his unstable mind, and lived. But he has a lot to think about now. Your speech hit him hard, precious. You saw his face, his eyes. He feels terribly guilty for what he's done. Guilt is such an alien feeling to us. It might just undo him."

Sarah couldn't even get worked up at the mention that her words might eventually kill Ifreann. In reality, it seemed for the best anyway. What kind of life could be possibly lead now?

"I do have a way with monologues," she laughed, remembering her final words to Jareth in the Labyrinth.

He chuckled lightly as he pushed open a door. It closed quietly behind him as he lay her down on the massive bed. She recognised the smell and feel of it instantly. It was his bed. She sighed. This was exactly where she needed to be right now. A glass of something was pushed into her hand. She glanced down. Water.

"Drink it slowly," Jareth warned.

"I'm not a baby," she reprimanded him, sitting up to sip it.

He smirked. "I know you aren't. I just wanted to see your sharp tongue. It's been missing far too long."

She smiled and set the glass down on the bedside table.

"Are you hungry?"

"No, just tired."

"Then sleep."

It was a command, but a gentle one.

"As long as you don't leave me alone," she muttered, resting her head down on one of the pillows.

She felt him move beside her, but her eyes were too heavy to open properly to see. He pulled her closer to him so that her head was resting on his chest, her legs entangling with his. His arms around her allowed his fingers to trace patterns on her back. It tickled in an oddly soothing way. She heaved a content sigh, wishing she could just stay like this forever.

"Never again, precious," he promised. "Never."

**I hate ending stories. I can never do the ending justice. Anyhoo, epilogue will be up relatively soon as it's so short where I shall give due thanks where they are needed and so on. In the meantime, review :3**


	21. Epilogue: Not Long At All

**Okay, now this is the proper ending. The epilogue. A random quick little thing to tail it all off. Y'know, a bit of fluff after all the hardship.****  
I must say thanks to: dark silver fox, TrueStoryBro, ThePrincessDragon, a norse girl, etcetera nine, comedychik84, layzevva27, Twistz of Doom, SwedishFanFictionLover, auriellis, spartiechic, Icyheart666, Jane294, StillFeelSixteen, Nonsuch, Bono Tempest and all guests for reviewing :D  
Special thanks to: BookWorm0001, Grey Kindle, Sarah Rose 29, Crow Skywalker, JarethGirl30028 and UnwrittenOpus for reviewing a lot!  
And MOST special thanks to Kaytori for reviewing like every chapter, giving me helpful feedback and in-depth reviews, and for all the honesty in the reviews. Now go read Dealing with Goblins by Kaytori and review a lot.**

Sarah's feminine snores were light and breezy as she slept deeply, head resting over his heart. His bare hands played absently with locks of her silky hair. Sometimes, his fingers would trail lightly over her cheeks, lips and nose. He rather enjoyed the twitch her eyes gave when he blew gently over her lashes. But he soon gave up on teasing her in her slumber. She needed rest, and a lot of it. She had been through so much in such a short time.

His anger flared when he thought of it all. She had been physically hurt, almost killed, nearly raped twice, been forced to kill someone, had trusted him then had that completely shattered. She'd forgiven him, gotten ill, and then kidnapped. It was all too much for even Jareth. He had to commend her strength. But then again, Sarah had always been the resilient type. That was certainly to be admired, especially in a young mortal woman.

As she slept, his fingers drifted to her bare legs. The tips of his fingers and the palms of his hands burned with magic as he casted several small protection spells over her. He had been speaking truthfully when he'd said he did not believe Ifreann would bother them again, but he'd already made the mistake of assuming she would be fine for one night. He was not going to lose her again. He was not sure if either of them would be able to handle it.

His tickling fingers left goosebumps on her exposed flesh. He flattened his hand and ran his palm from her ankle, up her calf and around the curve of her knee then up her thigh, warming her skin carefully. She smiled in her sleep and snuggled closer to him. He bent his neck a little so that he could press his lips against her forehead.

She was dusty, covered in a thin layer of dirt from her dangerous trek through No Man's Land. There was sand between her toes, her hair was tangled and in need of a wash. Her skin was faintly sunburnt. Her toes were slightly bruised, probably from stubbing them on rocks, and there were small cuts on the soles of her feet. He was too tired to do anything about this. He would take care of it all tomorrow.

He sighed and shifted slightly so that he was lying on his back more comfortably, and pulled up a blanket from beside him. Sarah stirred as he draped it over the pair of them.

"Jareth?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Yes, precious?" he breathed back.

"Am I dreaming?" she whispered.

"No, love," he smiled.

"Hmm," she murmured. "I thought I was."

She didn't offer an explanation for her words, but he did not need one.

"Do you still sing?"

"Mm," he nodded.

"Will you sing for me? I want to hear your voice."

Of course she did, he thought. She was just as worried about losing him again as he was about her. She drifted back to sleep, as he whispered a song he'd only sung once to her, once upon a time in a crystal ballroom. He simply stared at her as she snoozed once again.

He wrapped his arms back around her and let his own eyes fall closed. Tomorrow was a new day, and he had forever to love Sarah. Assuming, of course, that that was what she wanted.

And forever was not long at all.

**Yupp, I could have done a better job of ending that, but what you gonna do? Once again, a MASSIVE thanks for all your support and your reviews! Now I can focus on my other story, Remember. If you haven't checked it out already, then please do :D As for what happens in the future of THIS story, I'll leave that up to your imaginations :) Yay for the fluff :3**


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